Renvoi

Renvoi is a doctrine in private international law that addresses how courts determine which jurisdiction’s law should govern a dispute when questions of conflicts of laws arise. The core issue is whether a forum should treat the foreign law as including its own conflicts rules, or whether it should ignore those rules and apply only the substantive law that would be chosen under its own conflicts framework. The term comes from the French for “referral” or “return.”

There are two main forms of renvoi. Absolute renvoi means the forum applies the foreign jurisdiction’s entire set of rules, including its conflicts rules, which may refer the matter to another jurisdiction. If the foreign rules refer back to the forum or to a third state, the forum follows that chain to a final law. Relative or partial renvoi involves applying the foreign substantive law as determined by the forum’s own conflicts rules, without adopting the foreign jurisdiction’s further referrals, or applying those referrals only in limited circumstances.

Practice and variation are significant. Renvoi is used variably across jurisdictions and has been the subject of substantial debate. Civil-law systems have traditionally engaged with renvoi to a greater extent, while many common-law jurisdictions have restricted or avoided it, preferring to rely on their own conflicts rules or on the straightforward application of the chosen jurisdiction’s substantive law without indefinite referrals.

In application, renvoi can affect issues ranging from contracts and torts to succession and family law, because the outcome depends on how many layers of referrals the forum is willing to follow. The doctrine remains controversial, valued for its potential to respect foreign legal systems, but criticized for creating complexity and uncertainty in legal predictability.