International private law is one of the few areas of law that has to date largely escaped the attention of the 'Law and Economics Movement'. In spite of the immense significance attached to choice of law determinations in an increasingly interconnected world, the regulations governing the interplay of legal systems in instances of conflict have until now been insufficiently considered from an economic perspective. This volume attempts to address this shortcoming by making the results of a 2005 German-Japanese conference accessible to a wide audience. Placing an emphasis on international contract law, international tort law and international company (corporate) law, the contributors of the articles undertake to analyse various aspects of international private law through an economic perspective.