ABSTRACT
In any case in private international law, there will be a central question that can only be resolved by reference to a particular foreign law and there may be a difference of opinion as to the appropriate foreign law to resolve that central question. However, in the same case, there may be another question also requiring reference to foreign law that requires to be resolved before the central legal question can be satisfactorily determined. That other legal question is sometimes alluded to as ‘the subsidiary question’ or ‘the preliminary question’ but it is more often known to the many writers on the topic as ‘the incidental question’.1
