Nationality in International Private Law

Nationality, lex patriae, continues to play a significant role as a connecting factor in resolving private-law relationships involving a foreign element, both in the context of conflict-of-law rules and in determining international jurisdiction. Although EU regulations and multilateral instruments adopted under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law have tended to move away from this criterion in favour of more factual connecting factors, its relevance remains preserved through its continued presence in domestic legislation and bilateral treaties. This article addresses the issue of nationality as a legal connecting factor and explores the question of whether the assumption, that an individual should, for the purposes of international private and procedural law, be considered exclusively a national of a single state, can be regarded as a generally applicable rule across the entire field and all norms of international private and procedural law.