Dr Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm publishes research into role of private international law in UN sustainable development goals

Dr Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, together with Ralf Michaels (Director, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg) and Hans van Loon (former Secretary General of The Hague Conference) have published The Private Side of Transforming our World- UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Role of Private International Law (Intersentia 2021) (in print and on open access). In this edited volume, each of the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN 2030 Agenda is for the first time analysed with a view towards assessing the contribution that private international law can make towards their achievement.

The UN sustainable development goals had not been the subject of research in the field of private international law before a 2019 call for papers in which Dr Ruiz Abou-Nigm, together with Ralf Michaels and Hans van Loon invited scholars worldwide to explore the relationship between each of the sustainable development goals and private international law. The book is the result of international and interdisciplinary collaboration at a global scale with a 22-member global team of scholars from all continents where the thus far underestimated potential of private international law is made visible.

The research findings were presented for the first time at an international conference on 9-11 September 2021 - The Private Side of Transforming our World – The UN Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda and the Role of Private International Law, co-organised by Dr Ruiz Abou-Nigm at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg. This hybrid international conference was attended by over 400 participants from around the world. See conference report.

Following this international conference Dr Ruiz Abou-Nigm was invited to become a member of the Steering Committee of the International Law Association preparing a White Paper on the UN 2030 Agenda and International Law. Since the conference Ruiz Abou-Nigm has presented the findings of this project at book launches organised by universities and international law associations in Argentina, Australia, Cyprus, and the United States, and several other academic events are planned in relation to this research project in 2022. See also Private Law Gazette (2) (2021) (in German) (pages 6-7). Current information on the research project as well as videos from the conference “The Private Side of Transforming our World” can be found at: www.mpipriv.de/sdg2030.

Ralf Michaels, Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, Hans van Loon (eds.), The Private Side of Transforming our World, Intersentia, Cambridge 2021, XIV + 574 pages. Online version (Open Access).