Is this a work of private international law, or of its history, or of its historiography? Is this a text on the theory of private international law, or on its methods, or indeed its doctrines and their genealogies? It is all of these things and more. Hatzimihail, relying on both stupendous learnedness and high originality, provides us with a true tour de force that takes us in unexpected directions and leaves us with deep appreciation for the author, his book, and its subject.

This is the best book on the history of private international law (PIL) ever written in the English language. As one of the authors whose writings this book criticizes, I must say that it has taught me more than I thought I knew. But the book is not just about history; it is about the doctrinal foundations of our discipline; and it should be a required reading for anyone who wants to understand how and why PIL came to be where it is today.

'In a work that began as a doctoral dissertation and has matured over eighteen years of teaching, research, and writing, Hatzimihail deliberately addresses two types of readers: private international lawyers and, more broadly, those interested in law generally; and legal historians and, more broadly, those interested in history generally. His forte is showing the context within which lawyers, both today and in the immediate past, have developed their ideas, and that within which lawyers of the more remote past, particularly Bartolus and Ulrich Huber, developed their ideas. The work stands as a warning to such lawyers today not to misuse their history, but also to legal historians not to immerse themselves so deeply in the past that they answer questions that only they would ask. It's a balancing act of great difficulty that Hatzimihail pulls off with aplomb.'