On The Closest Connection Principle,

The doctrine of the most significant relationship (or "The doctrine of the closest relationship") is a important theory in the current private international law, and also a focus and difficult problem that have been heatedly discussed in the academe all alone. Since 1970's, the doctrine has not only profoundly impacted the judicatory and legislative practice of The United States, but also impacted many other countries in the world across the Atlantic and the Pacific. The doctrine has been widely applied in the legislation of the private international law or conflict law of almost every country in recent years. The most outstanding contribution of the doctrine lies in replacing the single connecting point with flexible ones, replacing the mechanical and single method of traditional private international law with flexible means of choice of law, in order to better accord with the international practice of civil and commercial relationship, In the meantime, the doctrine also represents the development trends of private international law in the future.Firstly, I construe the implication and history evolution of the doctrine. Afterwards, the method of positivism analysis is used to review the legislation of private international laws or conflict laws of main countries, and the application situation of the doctrine in western countries is also introduced in this article, In the third chapter, I deeply research into the ultimate cause of the doctrine from the perspectives of social economy, legal value, international relation and philosophy. A series of comparison analysis of the relation between the doctrine of most significant relationship with other related issues is made in the following chapter: the supplementary relation with the doctrine of autonomy of the will as well as the reflection upon such relation; the practical application and limitation relation with discretion power; the relation with doctrine of the "superficial relationship" and the changes of the rules of law application manifested in such relation. In the fifth chapter of this article, I focus on the challenges that the doctrine is faced with and the corresponding development hereof in the new ages, and respectively expatiate thefollowing issues: the related problems concerning the application of the doctrine in the electronic commerce; development of the doctrine in the transform of American conflict law; the parallel relation with modern law merchant. Finally, the article expounds the application situation and the characteristics of the doctrine in China. Meanwhile, the article points out the problems of the doctrine employment in the legislation practice of China, and then makes some suggestions to improve the legislation in China on the doctrine of the most significant relationship.