PIL.OT / DEVELOPMENT
PIL.OTv0.62.2
Mohamed Kamal Arafa El-Rakhawi sets out a theoretical framework, in six volumes and 30 chapters, that aims to modernise private international law for the twenty-first century. The general-theory volume proposes elevating the best interests of the child to a jus cogens norm specifically within private international law. The nationality volume deals with the eradication of statelessness and absolute gender equality in the transmission of nationality. The cross-border marriage and family volume addresses the recognition of blockchain-verified digital marriage certificates.
The migration and global mobility volume aims to protect digital nomads and asylum seekers. The volume on algorithmic justice in immigration prohibits fully automated visa and asylum rejections, and the final volume provides for an international family court for cross-border disputes. According to the author, four refinements ensure the framework's doctrinal defensibility. Jus cogens status is confined to private international law as lex specialis, which avoids classificatory clashes with general international law. Ordre public international is safeguarded in the recognition of blockchain marriages. A clearinghouse administers portable social security benefits through smart contracts. The discrimination and algorithmic-bias variables are subject to independent audits by UN bodies. The framework also contains a Global Citizenship and Family Harmony Index formula.
Proposals to treat the best interests of the child as a jus cogens norm in private international law, gender equality in transmitting nationality, recognition of blockchain-verified digital marriage certificates, and a ban on fully automated migration/asylum rejections.
The framework brings together separate problems, namely statelessness, the transmission of nationality, recognition of digital marriage certificates and fully automated visa and asylum rejections, in a single private international law proposal. The proposals are presented as the author's own theoretical framework, and there is no information that any court or legislature has adopted them. Researchers can use the text to see how the author confines jus cogens status for the best interests of the child to private international law and how the author safeguards ordre public international in recognising blockchain marriages.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23296136
Mohamed Kamal Arafa El-Rakhawi, “THE EL-RAKHAWI FRAMEWORK FOR PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP From Rigid Borders to Universal Human Dignity in Nationality, Marriage, and Migration”, Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2026-10-11, 10.5281/zenodo.23296136. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23296136