Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract This chapter highlights Congolese perspectives on the Hague Principles. It first outlines the sources of private international law for international commercial contracts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Until July of 2016, Articles 8–15 of the Decree of May 4, 1895 (Title II of the Civil Code Book I) constituted the most relevant national source of private international law. As of January of 2019, there is no plan from the Congolese authorities for the adoption of new conflict of laws provisions after the repeal of Title II of the Congolese Civil Code I. If new rules of private international law were developed and adopted, the Hague Principles could theoretically play an important part in providing the Congolese lawmakers with apt rules on choice of law in international commercial contracts. However, since most Congolese lawmakers, judges, and legal advisors do not know the Hague Principles yet, their use for the development of new statutes is practically unlikely. Hence, it is important to widely diffuse the Hague Principles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.