Late development

Compared with other branches of English law, a systematic body of rules on the conflict of laws only came into being at a comparatively late stage. The earliest cases appear to have concerned the enforcement of foreign judgments. An eighteenth-century case, which is still of binding authority, concerned the validity of a foreign marriage. Lord Mansfield, who, more than any judge, was connected with the development of a body of commercial law in the latter half of the eighteenth century, gave judgments concerning foreign contracts, torts and the duty to give effect to, and sometimes to deny effect to, foreign laws.

It can be said with some confidence that the subject began to burgeon in the latter part of the nineteenth century, which at the same time saw the development (after 1857) of family law and the coming into existence of a coherent body of commercial law, since that period witnessed a rapid expansion of international trade and financial transactions. In those years, the courts evolved more sophisticated rules as regards domicile, the validity of marriages and recognition of foreign legitimations, formulated the modern doctrine of the proper law of the contract, laid down the rule governing liability for torts committed abroad and adopted clear rules and principles for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. In order to formulate these principles the English courts had to rely more on the writings of jurists than was usual with them; Huber and the American Story J are notable examples.