Dr Nicolas Kyriakides Presents Research on US Disengagement and the Future of Private International Law at Edinburgh Festival

On 24–25 September 2026, the University of Edinburgh Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Hamburg) hosted the Private International Law Festival 2026, dedicated to “The End of Rule-Based International Order? – Implications for Private International Law.”

Our Director, Dr Nicolas Kyriakides, together with Dr Nicholas Mouttotos of the University of Bremen, presented their co-authored paper, “From Harmonisation to Fragmentation: US Disengagement and the Reconfiguration of Private International Law.”

Their contribution examined how selective US disengagement, from formal withdrawal to reduced participation, funding and expert involvement, is likely to affect the coherence and legitimacy of private international law. Drawing on the work of the HCCH, including the 2019 Judgments Convention and the ongoing Jurisdiction Project, alongside UNIDROIT’s 2026–2028 Work Programme, as well as UNCITRAL, the paper assessed whether international instruments can retain normative coherence when a major legal and economic power disengages from the processes that shape them.

The presentation set out three possible futures for the discipline (institutional resilience, regionalisation, and informal fragmentation) and considered reforms such as diversified funding, broader participation, and greater reliance on soft-law instruments as ways for private international law to adapt to an era of geopolitical recalibration.