Een lappendeken van interpretatiemethoden in de context van het Ontwerp Boek 10 BW: de invloed van Europeanisering en internationalisering van het IPR

In the Dutch Proposal on Private International Law (Book 10 of the Dutch Civil Code), a 'General Part' containing provisions on topics like public policy, internationally mandatory provisions, party autonomy, capacity et cetera has been included. However, unlike in some foreign private international law Acts, general provisions on interpretation and/or characterisation have been deliberately omitted. In this article it is argued that it would have been useful and possible to introduce such provisions. Useful because different methods (of a general, European or international background) of interpretation and characterisation have to be applied to different (groups of) provisions of the Book and it will not be obvious to practitioners which method will have to be applied when and how. Possible since - as will be shown - guidelines on which methods of interpretation and characterisation are to be applied and in which context can be laid down.