The application of mandatory rules in private international law of contracts is a controversial
topic of growing international concern. Legislatures are increasingly intervening in private
contracts in order to protect the economic interests of state or the interests of vulnerable
groups such as consumers or employees. This thesis addresses two major contexts in which the
application of mandatory rules arises namely the restriction of party autonomy by the
application of certain mandatory rules of a law other than the chosen law and the application
of internationally mandatory rules of the forum the proper law and most controversially of a
third country. Approaches of academic writing case law legislature and treaties in England
Germany and Switzerland are compared and critically analysed. Paying also attention to the
legal situation in South Africa the analysis results to provide guidelines for the application
of mandatory rules in private international law of contracts.
