The Purpose and Operation of the Public Policy Defence as Applied to Punitive Damages

‘Public policy’ is the doctrine whereby a foreign law that would normally apply, or a foreign judgment which would otherwise qualify for recognition, will, exceptionally, not be given effect where to do so would result in an infringement of the fundamental principles of the forum. The paper discusses the raison d’être of the doctrine and the place it occupies within the rules of private international law, and outlines the object and nature of the assessment on which the doctrine itself is centred. Finally, having especially regard to punitive damages cases, the paper addresses two aspects of the operation of the public policy doctrine, namely the standards by which a court should be guided when deciding whether the defence should be raised in a given set of circumstances, and the consequences that the defence entails for the decision of the dispute, or issue, in question.