1. FREEDOMS OF COMMUNITY LAW AND NATIONAL PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW

From the very outset it should be realised that the freedoms of Community law and

the private international law of t he Member States are intimately related. The freedoms

aim to guarantee the tree movement of goods, services, persons and capital. For that

purpose they regulate and co-ordinate the application of rules and measures of the

Member States to interstate (economic) intercourse. This is equally the traditional field

of operation of private international law: the co-ordination of various national rules

or legal systems in respect of cross-border legal relationships." In this sense, there is

a certain overlap between the economic freedoms and national private international

law. On the other hand, they operate from fundamentally different perspectives.

National private international law co-ordinates the application of legal norms from

the perspective of (ultimately) nationally defined interests and concepts of (conflicts)

justice. The perspective of the freedoms, however, is one of market-integration: the

establishment and maintenance of an internal market. This difference in perspective

means that their outcomes do not necessarily coincide. In case their outcomes are

irreconcilable, national private international law will have to be modified by virtue

of the principle of the supremacy of Community lawC