Optional Choice of Court Agreements in Private International Law

Abstract

The law in relation to choice of court agreements has developed significantly in recent years, but most of this development has concerned exclusive choice of court agreements. Optional choice of court agreements have not been the focus of attention by lawmakers or by commentators. This chapter provides an overview of this area of the law, synthesising the national reports which comprise this collection, and drawing out the themes that emerge from those reports. It shows that the legal treatment of optional choice of courts differs substantially between legal systems, and argues that this topic warrants greater attention from scholars and lawmakers.