The “Choice of Law Dataverse” (CoLD) platform catalogs private international law from over 100 jurisdictions and makes more than 17,000 data points freely available to researchers and practitioners (see in-depth interview for further details). The project was recently awarded the Swiss National ORD Prize 2025 (news report).

The event opens with an introduction to the Dataverse by Agatha Brandão, followed by a debate between Professor Horatia Muir Watt (Sciences Po, France) and Professor Béligh Elbalti (University of Osaka, Japan) on the myths and significance of party autonomy in international contract law, moderated by Professor Daniel Girsberger. Raquel Peixoto will then offer an overview of ten years of the HCCH Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts and present the next steps in collaboration with CoLD.

In addition, bilateral Q&A slots will be available, in which participants can explore the Dataverse for their own research purposes, ask questions, or sign up as specialists for their respective jurisdictions.

The event will take place in hybrid format; attendance is possible both in person and online. To attend in person, please send a brief email to agatha.brandao@unilu.ch. No registration is required for online participation (link to join via Zoom). 

The day concludes with an exclusive evening programme at Max Chocolatier, featuring a presentation of the platform, a roundtable discussion on ongoing research, and a closing apéro.

Further information: cold.global/event/launch

For any questions, please contact agatha.brandao@unilu.ch and celine.steiner@unilu.ch