ORDRE PUBLIC (PUBLIC ORDER)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the notion of ordre public or public order. Ordre public denotes the basic values of domestic law. It is a necessary corollary of sovereignty. Under a written or unwritten special rule of the forum State's rules of private international law or on conflict of laws in penal or administrative matters, the courts of the forum State will exclude the application of a foreign law which conflicts with such values in a case before them; this will occur in spite of the fact that, otherwise, under the forum State's conflict of law rules, the legal relation concerned should be governed by this foreign law. Public international law recognizes this rule as indispensable in view of the impossibility of foreseeing the exact content of a law declared applicable under the forum State's conflict of law rules. A foreign law, therefore, will be applied only under the condition that in the case concerned the application of this law does not endanger these basic values. The chapter highlights that the notion of ordre public must be distinguished from ordre public interne and ordre public international, terms used in countries belonging to the family of the French Code civil.