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N. [French: sending back]

The doctrine whereby the courts of one country in certain circumstances apply the law of another country in resolving a legal dispute. A problem arises in private international law when one country's rule as to conflict of law refers a case to the law of a foreign country, and the law of that country refers the case either back to the law of the first country (remission) or to the law of a third country ( transmission). For example, under English conflict rules, if a person dies intestate, the succession to his personal property is governed by the law of the country in which he is domiciled. Under Italian conflict rules, however, succession to personal property in such cases is governed by the law of the intestater's nationality. Thus if an English national dies intestate while domiciled in Italy, a renvoi problem will arise – English law will refer the matter to the law of his domicile (i.e. Italian law) and Italian law would refer the matter to the law of his nationality (i.e. English law).

Subjects: Law.

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