FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESTRICTIONS AND PUBLIC POLICY IN THE CONFLICT OF LAWS: PART II

Political Laws have been the subject of a much disputed doctrine. It has been stated by Dicey, and by other authoritative writers in various countries, that a court has no jurisdiction to entertain an action for the enforcement of a "political law" of a foreign state. The term "political law" is not limited to the field of public law. It is, of course, only exceptionally that rules governing the relations between a state and its citizens are given extraterritorial effect.

The doctrine goes further. It holds that rules which are technically a part of private law, but which are designed to supplement the commands and prohibitions of public law, be regarded as "political" and treated on the same basis as public law.