The author looks at the broadening of the scope of private international law to meet the realities of a rapidly globalised world involving trans-national laws as well as cross-border interaction across national legal systems; and suggests that the scope of local laws increasingly intersects with a public domain not distinctively associated with standard private international law. Article by Olusoji Elias (Member of the International Bar Association). Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.