European federalism and the new unilateralism

The real methodological revolution in European conflict of laws today is linked to theemergence of a fundamental-ights approach to cross-border situations, which aims atprotectingpersonal status and relationships from the adverse effects of heightened international mobilityThis approach entails a neo-unilatemlist turn, whereby the forum s choice-of-law rules are setaside whenever they interfere with the continuity of an effective cross-border relationship. To alarge extent, the traditionalm ethods andp olicies encountered in the field ofmutial recognitionof foreign judgments are extending to situations created independenty of any judicialintervention but which have generated legitimate individual expectations. The case law of thevarious European and national courts frequentlyjustifies this new methodology by reference tothe principle of nondiscrimination, whether ithin the context of Community law oron the basisof the European Convention of Human Rights. Ho wever such a justification is highlydebatable. Rather the recent methodological turn appears to be mandated by the ideologicalfoundations of the new European legal order, which are grounded in the recognition andprotection ofjpersonal identity.