to Seeking the answer to the three basic questions of contempo- rary
private international law, I also deemed it essential to out- line to
the reader the historical development of the different concepts of this
particular branch of law, for without the know- ledge of this history it
is impossible to understand the contempo- rary problems. The fact that
private international law oscillates between public international law
and substantive municipal law as it is applied in individual countries
creates considerable problems in both theory and practice. I have tried
to deal with these problems in the third part of my study, concerning
"universa- lism" and "nationalism" in the doctrine of private
international law, as well as in its fourth part, which is devoted to
the object and nature of this law and its place in the overall system of
law. The character of private international law, ensuing from the
plurality of municipal laws - which also characterize the origin and
existence of comparative jurisprudence - in- spired me to produce the
fifth part of this study, which prima- rily tries to expJain the
theoretical problems of comparative jurisprudence but does so - defining
its objectives and possibili- ties - in order to underline at the same
time its role in private international law and in the law of
international trade.