3.2 Law Applicable to the Dispute of Conflict Cases

The methodology (the choice's steps): (1) the issue identified (the marriage's validity? the contract's formation? the tort's damages?); (2) the characterization (3.3); (3) the forum's conflict rule located (the lex fori's conflict rules govern — the court's own choice machinery); (4) the connecting factor applied (the law identified); (5) the renvoi-and-exclusion questions (3.4; Unit 4); (6) the foreign law proved (the proof's craft — the expert evidence, the court's notice). The modern approaches: the rule-approach (the classical fixed rules) vs the flexible (the most- significant-relationship (the American Restatement's craft); the interest analysis; the party autonomy's expansion (the choice-of-law clauses)).