Henry Forbes Smith KC gave a presentation entitled “The identification of foreign unwritten law” on 4 April 2025 at a conference at the University of Cambridge in honour of Professor Richard Fentiman KC (Hons). The conference was attended by leading judges from England and Korea and by leading jurists from several countries in the conflict of laws.
Henry considered how judges or arbitrators in one country should decide questions of the law of another country, where written law compels no particular answer. He suggested that the object of the inquiry is the same whether the question is decided in one country or another, and that judges should not reproduce the methods of decision of the courts of the country whose law applies, but should understand those methods and use the best methods they can.
Henry’s paper will be published as part of a book in honour of Professor Fentiman.