The Purpose and Operation of the Public Policy Defence as Applied to Punitive Damages

1. Introduction. – 2. The raison d’être of public policy. – 2.1. In the conflicts of laws. – 2.2. In the recognition of judgments. – 3. The object and nature of the assessment. – 3.1. The effects of the foreign law or judgment concerned in the circumstances of the case. – 3.2. The ‘regularity’ of the foreign law or judgment in question. – 3.2.1. A matter of ‘international’, not internal, regularity. – 3.2.2. International standards as part of a State’s public policy. – 4. Assessing whether the public policy defence ought to be raised in a given set of circumstances. – 4.1. A strict scrutiny. – 4.2. An inherently discretionary assessment. – 4.3. Taming the enfant terrible: some possible guidelines. – 4.3.1. The rank of the rules in which a particular value is enshrined. – 4.3.2. The seriousness of the infringement. – 4.3.3. The ties between the situation and the forum. – 5. The consequences of raising the defence. – 5.1. In the conflicts of laws. – 5.1.1. The ousting effect. – 5.1.2. The subsidiarily applicable law. – 5.2. In the recognition of judgments. – 6. Concluding remarks.