ABSTRACT
Suppose we are dealing with a road accident case in tort, what significance, if any is to be given to the personal laws of the parties? Suppose they come from the same country, which happens not to be the place of the accident. It might be argued here that, if there is no damage to persons or property of the country where the accident occurs,78 there is no case for referring to the place of injury at all. Suppose, however, that they have different personal laws; what is to be made of this? One would hardly argue that a plaintiff who came from California was entitled to higher damages by reason of the fact that personal injury awards were higher in his home country. To be sure, his expectations might well be inflated by his personal law but what about the defendant who, let us suppose, comes from a country in which personal injury awards are low?
