The United States Joins the Hague Conference on Private International Law: A "History" with Comments

Abstract

On the basis of enabling legislation passed at the end of i963,1 the United States has joined as a full member two noted international institutions dedicated to work on unification of private law: the Hague Conference on Private International Law whose origins go back to the end of the last century, and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law in Rome which Italy set up in the nineteenthirties to assist the League of Nations in work on unification of law. Participation by the United States as a member constitutes a major development, domestically and internationally. A long policy of not collaborating in this kind of endeavor came, finally, to an end, though too late to have an immediate impact on an ambitious project in course, unification of the law on the international sale of goods. We shall revert to this project in due course.