Australian private international law is the body of Australian legal principles which govern the

interaction between Australian law and overseas jurisdictions.

(https://handbook.uts.edu.au/subjects/76112.html#:~:text=Australian%20private%20international
%20law%20is,Australian%20law%20and%20overseas%20) Important aspects of Australia’s private
international law – including its international commercial arbitration and international sales laws –
have international origins. The instruments underlying these laws rely upon uniform interpretation
to fulfil their trade promotion purposes. Yet Australia does not always fulfil its part of this bargain:
internationally minded interpretations of these instruments’ local implementations are not always
evident in the case law. This article analyses the interpretative rules governing Australia’s
international commercial arbitration and international sales laws, identifying a legal requirement of
internationalist interpretation. It assesses the extent to which their interpretations by Australian
courts live up to this standard, demonstrating improvements over time in the case of arbitration law
but ongoing deficiencies in the sales law field. As a result, recommendations are made as to how the
reasoning of Australian courts in international sales cases can be improved. These recommendations
are ultimately directed at aiding Australian merchants and their trading partners, the intended
beneficiaries of these laws.

Scope of private international law (the concept of legal issues which have a connection with more
than one legal system); (2) Personal jurisdiction (including the discretionary non-exercise of
jurisdiction and anti-suit injunctions); (3) Substance and procedure (with particular reference to
limitation of actions and damages); (4) Proof of foreign law; (5) Exclusionary doctrines (foreign
revenue and penal laws, foreign governmental interests and foreign laws contrary to forum public
policy); (6) Choice of law in contract; (7) Choice of law in tort; (8) Recognition and enforcement of
foreign judgments; and (9) Comparative aspects of private international law.

This chapter seeks to survey recent developments in Australian private international law, using a
selective rather than comprehensive approach. This is, of course, a challenging task, given the ever-
increasing number of Australian decisions involving cross-border disputes. However, the rise in
multi-jurisdictional matters is precisely why a survey such as this is important.

The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the key policy development in the private international
law space, followed by an analysis of key cases involving the initiation of litigation (service and
jurisdiction) and restraint of process. The chapter concludes with some brief forward-looking
remarks.

KEYWORD: Anastasi, Andrea and Hayward, Benjamin and Brown, Stephanie Peta, An Internationalist
Approach to Interpreting Private International Law? Arbitration and Sales Law in Australia (2020).