The Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1995 (c 42) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. The Act is made up of several parts. The three principal parts regulate: * Interest on judgment debts and arbitral awards * Validity of marriages under a law which permits

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

Choice of law Choice of law is a procedural stage in the litigation of a case involving the conflict of laws when it is necessary to reconcile the differences between the laws of different legal jurisdictions, such as sovereign states, federated states (as in t ...

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

and

delict Delict (from Latin ''dēlictum'', past participle of ''dēlinquere'' ‘to be at fault, offend’) is a term in civil and mixed law jurisdictions whose exact meaning varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but is always centered on the notion of ...

Interest

The first part inserts a new provision into the

Administration of Justice Act 1970 The Administration of Justice Act 1970 (c. 31) is a UK Act of Parliament. Section 11 reforms the Debtors Act 1869 by further restricting the circumstances in which debtors may be sent to prison. Section 40 includes a number of provisions forbiddin ...

and the

County Courts Act 1984 The County Courts Act 1984 (c. 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; the long title of the Act is "An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to county courts". The Act replaced the County Courts Act 1959. The County Cou ...

permitting interest to be awarded by the courts on judgments issued in a currency other than sterling, and then updates the relevant section which relate to equivalent provisions in the Arbitration Act 1950 for arbitration awards.

Polygamous marriages

Section 5(1) affirms that: Section 6 gives the section retroactive effect, and section 7 applies equivalent provisions to Scotland. Section 8(1) confirms that "Nothing in this Part affects any law or custom relating to the marriage of members of the Royal Family."

Choice of law in tort

Part III regulates choice of law for tort and delict. Section 9(2) states "The characterisation for the purposes of private international law of issues arising in a claim as issues relating to tort or delict is a matter for the courts of the forum", which replicates the common law position in relation to that issue. Section 10 abrogates the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

rule on

double actionability Double actionability is a doctrine of private international law which holds that an action for an alleged tort committed in a foreign jurisdiction can be successful in a domestic court only if it would be actionable under both the laws of the home j ...

from the case of ''

Phillips v Eyre ''Phillips v Eyre'' (1870) LR 6 QB 1 is an English decision on the conflict of laws in tort. The Court developed a two limbed test for determining whether a tort occurring outside of the court's jurisdiction can be actionable. In time this cam ...

'' (1870) LR 6 QB 1. Section 11 lays down the new rule, that the choice of law for tort and delict shall be the ''

lex loci delicti commissi In conflict of laws, the term ''lex loci'' (Latin for "the law of the place") is a shorthand version of the choice of law rules that determine the ''lex causae'' (the laws chosen to decide a case).''Black's Law Dictionary'' abridged Sixth Edition (1 ...

'' ("place where the wrong occurred"). Subsection (2) clarifies that where the tort occurs across different countries: * in relation to personal injury or death resulting from personal injury, it is the law of the country where the individual was when he sustained the injury; * in relation to damage to property, it is the law of the country where the property was when it was damaged; and * in any other case, it is the law of the country in which the most significant element or elements of those events occurred. Section 12 creates a "flexible exception" where the tort is overwhelmingly more connected with another country to that indicated by section 11. Section 13 creates a general exception for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. Defamation continues to be regulated by the common law rules and still requires double actionability. This was felt necessary to protect British newspapers from being sued under draconian defamation laws overseas.

References

External links

The Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1995
as amended, from the National Archives.
The Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1995
as originally enacted, from the National Archives. United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1995 {{UK-statute-stub