Introduction

Introduction

Private international law，which is a branch of law regulating the various property and personal relations between equal subjects in the international society，is highly important to the international cooperation and development of economy，technology and culture.But it was greatly influenced by the feudalism and territorial jurisdiction，and at the beginning，the legislation of private international law in the few nations(such as France and Germany)laid great stress on its application of their domestic laws；and their rules of private international law were quite different from each other.Therefore，the private international law has little practical effectiveness，though the aim of private international law is to eliminate the conflict of different national laws and to keep the international civil relations peaceful and stable.So，in the middle of the 18th century，Mancini，the famous Italian politician and jurist，advocated the formulation of unitary conflict rules through international treaties so that the system of applicable law in different states could be coordinated.Limited by the social conditions then，this was not attempted until the late 19th and early 20th centuries and little progress was achieved during that period.

After the Second World War，with the rapid development of science and technology and the strengthening of economic and civil ties between states，more and more states have sought to coordinate their private international laws with the common practices of the international society，the fulfilment of which has become one of the principal criterions for evaluating the completeness and perfectness of the private international law system of any one state.

This is due to that with the strengthening of the economic function of modern states and the more internationalization of commodity production and sales，in order to seek a rapid development of their own economy，none of the states can stay away from the international market，and they should maintain close links with and depend on each other.When the funds，technology and personnel of one state enter into the other party's market，effective legal protection needs to be provided.This forces the states to improve their system of private international law competitively so as to produce an environment advantageous to attract international funds，technology and qualified personnel.In this way，in the field of private international law，lots of the practice commonly accepted by the international society comes into being quickly.Based on the recognition of this trend，in the academic exchange activities held to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the International Law Research Institute of Wuhan University，I，for the first time，raised the viewpoint in a speech that the convergence tendency of modern private international law is getting stronger.In fact，many foreign scholars also show great concern over this tendency and are discussing its character and significance.Recognizing this tendency，many states in Asia，Africa，Europe and Latin-America have，since the 1970's，successively promulgated their new private international law codes；the international organizations(especially Hague Conference of Private International Law)have been working more and more diligently on the unification of private international law and have made much headway.And to serve the reform and open policy，China joined Hague Conference of Private International Law in 1987 while she was constantly strengthening the national legislation of her private international law.All of these activities show the viewpoint that the convergence tendency of private international law is becoming stronger has been widely accepted.

This book，based upon the spirit of Deng Xiaoping's talk that peace and development are the two main currents in the international society today and that China should establish a socialist market economy，not only analyses the internal reasons mentioned above which cause the assimilation tendency of modern private international law，but also stresses that the strengthening of the assimilation tendency in the development of private international law at present has direct connection with the increase of objective requirements of the international society，the more convenient mass media，and the increase of the exchanging speed and scale of the legal culture.The international exchange of legal cultures has also played an important role in propelling Chinese private international law forward.

Chinese legal system was one of the oldest legal systems in the world.But.as it was nourished in the society in which the commodity economy was far from flourishing，its civil and commercial laws were undeveloped though it had a perfect system of criminal law.It was around 1900s，after the first exchange of Chinese and foreign legal cultures，that civil and commercial laws were introduced into China，and also，private international law.Since the national sovereignty was trampled on by the western big powers at that time，this kind of introduction and absorption was inevitably influenced by colonialism.Up to the middle of the present century，and after the democratic and socialist revolution led by the proletariat succeeded in China，the second exchange of Chinese and foreign legal cultures occured.During this period，Liu Fa Quan Shu(corpus of the constitutional law，civil law，commercial law，criminal law，civil procedure law and criminal procedure law made by the Kuomintang)was completely abolished and the United States of America pursued a policy of hostility and impediment toward communist China.In this second exchange the whole Soviet legal culture represented by the Soviet legal ideology was“transplanted”into China，and its historical achievement was to have helped China to formulate the Chinese socialist legal culture and system.The Soviet legal culture then was based upon Stalin's stiff pattern of planned economy and it strongly influenced Chinese economic system.Also at this time，the internal commodity production and market economy were not fully developed.and the range of the development of international trade relations was very limited.As a result，our civil and commercial laws could not gain the internal attention and development which it deserved.Being strongly influenced by the strict territorial jurisdiction of Soviet doctrines，the set up of private international law was attempted in China in the early 50's，but it neglected the neccessity of establishing some flexible systems to solve the conflict between the internal and foreign laws.During the period 1957—1978，the teaching and studying of private international law even stopped.Since 1978，the third exchange of Chinese and foreign legal cultures has been on the stage.The State then started to reform the economic system and pursued an open policy.In order to strengthen the democracy and legal system and establish a legal environment attractive to international capital and technology during this exchange，China gradually established its economic law concerning foreign elements and private international law while it set about constructing its civil and commercial legal system.For this reason，the achievements which the third exchange yielded and will yield with the profoundness and extensiveness of the reform and open policy，must be fully affirmed although some negative factors have also been brought in.It is undoubtedly true that with the establishment of the socialist market economy which will gradually take shape with the profoundness of the reform，the socialist legal culture and legal system with distinctive Chinese features will be further developed and improved and as a branch of it，Chinese private international law will also become more harmonized and accorded with the international common practices and thus it will be more helpful for China to enlarge its economic ties with other states upon the foundation of“equality and mutual benefit”.

When expounding that the further development of Chinese private international law should keep pace with the common practices in the international society，I point out definitely that the so-called assimilation tendency of private international law means that with the strengthening of the economic dependent relationships in the international society，the private international laws of the States will tend to be harmonized and in accord with each other.But，so long as the States exist，neither the differences of their civil and commercial laws nor the national，historical，social and economic differences of private international laws will disappear.There are two ways to assimilate different private international laws:one is to absorb the rules and systems commonly practised by the States which are prove to be effective in the national legislations，and the other is that the States should create favourable conditions to join the private international law unification activities，either bilateral or multiple，regional or universal.Early in 1921，an American scholar once pointed out that if a unification code was adopted by one certain international conference and excluded the viewpoints of the United States，the American legislators had to either accept a foreign model formed by bargaining between foreign states，or refuse to accept it，which would make America lag behind the international unification community and led to differences and conflicts of laws.Now that the comprehensive national power and international standing of our country have been improved greatly after over 10 years'reform，and China has become a strong country，we should have foresight and sagacity on the international unification of private international law.(https://www.daowen.com)

Up to now，this is the only book in the country discussing the connections between China and the international unification movements of private international law.It is completely different from the published books on private international law.One of its features is that it doesn't regard the introduction of general theories and knowledge as its main task.In the first chapter，it introduces the rules of Chinese private international law in every detail so as to expound and prove the argument that Chinese private international law is sizeable and has been tentatively established；its content is becoming more and more substantial；and it is a fairly scientific system which has been appreciated by most of the States in the world.This is put forward at the beginning of the book.I analyse some of the rules which are connected with the common practices of the international society today and points out its shortcomings which are not in accordance with the practices and which therefore will probably hamper the development of our private international law relations.I think that，although many institutions of our private international law are made to satisfy the need of the reform and open policy after the reform has begun，and they are based on the advanced theories and practices of foreign states，there exist a lot of problems which have an urgent need to be solved in the legislative model，guiding ideology and skills.In earlier attempts，we did not liberate our ideology completely，took little recognition of the internationalization tendency of commodity production and exchange，and had little understanding of the trend of modern private international law tending to convergence and unification.

The book is divided into two parts.In part I，the present condition of Chinese private international law is mainly examined；the viewpoint is advanced that the convergence tendency of private international law is strengthening；and the concept，meaning and ways of this convergence tendency are discussed and defined.PartⅡintroduces and evaluates in an all-round way the history and achievements of Hague Conference of Private International Law，which is the most important international organization to unify private international laws.The content of the book，especially the analysis and evaluation of the present developing situation of Chinese private international law，the exposition of the convergence tendency of modern private international law and the evaluation of the historical development and achievements of Hague Conference of Private International Law，are for the first time stated and published at home.

It is an important aim for the legal study to try to interpret the present legal rules and systems of state correctly according to legal principle for correct application and observance.Another important aim of the legal study is to analyse its merits and demerits and probe into its correct trend of further development with the changing times ahead and social relations'changing.It is just on the basis of the latter consideration that I study this subject.Though we all regard Marxist view of science of law as our guidance，the questions and views put forward in this book are what I learned from my initial research and so，it is inevitable that some of them may be unsuitable.The main consideration to publish the book is to arouse the interests of studying and discussing these questions in the field of private international law.Any criticism and correction to any viewpoint in this book are really welcomed and expected.

Li Shuangyuan

20 Oct，1992

International Law Institute Wuhan University