Hermeneutics in international law private

Abstract

This paper analyses legal interpretation in Private International Law. It focuseson the legal reasoning of Spanish judges when dealing with international disputes ofa private nature, without forgetting that they are also European Union judges. Afterdescribing the reduced scope of Codification in Private International Law, the paperattempts to clarify why interpretation in this area is more complex than in otherlegal domains: international objectives but with basically national means, a PrivateLaw focus and the development of European Union Private International Law aresome of the aspects that will be assessed in order to explain, briefly, the very creativerole of judges in looking for justice in each particular case. Finally, this paper dealswith methods of interpretation in Private International Law as well as the problemsof legal language and translation.