In any case which involves a foreign element it may prove necessary to decide which system of law is to be applied, either to the case as a whole or to a particular issue or issues. Such foreign elements may be constituted by the central administration or headquarters of each of the parties being located in different countries or by the fact that the site is located in a country different from the home country of either of the parties. The identification of the appropriate law may be viewed as involving a three-stage process: (1) characterisation or classification of the relevant issue; (2) selection of the rule of conflict of laws which lays down a connecting factor for that issue; and (3) identification of the system of law which is tied by that connecting factor to that issue.1 In practise, in particular at pre-contract stage, the approach should be a bit more sophisticated, as such: Identification of the forum (which is either stipulated or not) Identification of the applicable set of conflict of laws rules (determined by the seat of the forum) Characterisation or classification of the relevant issue (contract issue, pre-contract issue, tort issue, power of attorney issue, formal requirement issue, etc.) Selection of the rule of conflict of laws which lays down a connecting factor for that issue Identification of the system of law which is tied by that connecting factor to that issue