| Proper Law |
Article Index for Proper |
Website Links For Law |
Information AboutProper Law |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PROPER LAW | |
| conflict of laws | |
| legal principles | |
|
The Doctrine of the Proper Law is applied in the Choice Of Law stage of a Lawsuit involving the Conflict Of Laws . EXPLANATION In a Conflicts lawsuit, one or more State Law s will be relevant to the decision-making process. If the laws are the same, this will cause no problems, but if there are substantive differences, the choice of which law to apply will produce a different Judgment . Each state therefore produces a set of rules to guide the choice of law, and one of the most significant rules is that the law to be applied in any given situation will be the ''proper law''. This is the law which seems to have the closest and most real connection to the facts of the case, and so has the best claim to be applied. All laws, to a greater or lesser extent, are reflections of the should be carried, setting the minimum age and qualifications for the right to drive, etc. But the problem with accepting the claim of any one state to have its law apply is that the result may be somewhat arbitrary. So, in the example given, if neither driver had a residence in the state, and the cars were both maintained outside the state, the laws of other states may have an equal or better claim to apply. The advantage of the ''proper law'' approach is that it builds in flexibility rather than offering a mechanical rule. Suppose that there is a ), the parties are deemed to have chosen to be bound by the law with which the contract has the closest and most real connection. CONCLUSION The general rule is that the ''proper law'' is the primary system of law which governs most aspects of the factual situation giving rise to the dispute. This does not imply that all the aspects of the factual circumstances are necessarily governed by the same system of law, but there is a strong presumption that this will be the case (see Characterisation ). So, the process of legal analysis undertaken by the courts in each case identifies all the facts that have a specific geographical connection, e.g. where the parties reside or their businesses operate, where any agreement was made, where relevant actions were performed, etc. Once all the relevant connecting factors have been identified, the law of the state that has the greatest number of connections will be the proper law. In the event of a tie, the connecting factors which relate to performance will be given a greater weight than the connecting factors affect form. In most cases, this weighting will produce a clear winner. |
|
|