The 1957 Treaty of Rome and its successor treaties have developed a Community legal system distinct from that of its constituent states, but ‘nevertheless intimately and organically tied to it in such a way that the mutual and constant respect for the respective jurisdictions of the Community and national bodies’ is essential for the proper attainment of Community aims. Although this sui generis Community structure has limited the sovereign rights of the Member States in ever-widening fields, it operates as severable yet dependant upon a backdrop of autonomous, self-contained and functionally independent civil codes of national private law. Because the integration envisaged by the original Treaty structure relies on market forces and is powered by economic drive, the ‘four freedoms’ guaranteed by this structure – namely, the free trans-border movement of goods, services, people and capital – remain attainable without the complete substantive uniformity of national laws. Still, with further integration encouraging increased interstate transactions, and few substantive matters falling exclusively within the generaljurisdiction of the Community, legal dilemmas referencing diverse national laws hinder the operation of the internal market. Rather than eroding the sensitive national bulwark of substantive private law, however, the Community has often chosen to enact common rules on the conflicts of law to determine the reach of Community measures and their intersection with national substantive laws.

The Republic of Rwanda is part of the African Great Lakes Region. The region straddles the east-central part of Africa. A chain of lakes is found in the region, ranging from Lakes Victoria, Albert, Edward, Kivu and Tanganyika; hence the name African Great Lakes Region. It covers the countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The region's relief is moderate and influenced by tectonic and volcanic activity. Parts of the region are heavily forested, as is the case with the Congo-basin, while the others in the east are grassland savannahs. The volcanic soil in parts of the region makes it ideal for agriculture and therefore conducive to human habitation. Indeed parts of the region, particularly Burundi and Rwanda, have high population densities and a concomitant problem of land shortage. Besides the rich arable soil the countries of this region are also well endowed with a variety of precious mineral resources, such as gold, diamonds, uranium, copper, emeralds and cobalt.

In 1918, Belgian magistrates working under German occupation during the First World War, were presented with the dilemma of the coexistence on their territory of both Belgian and German legislation. In regard to such situation, Articles 43 and 23(h) of the 18 October 1907 Hague Convention hold: while it is possible for the occupant to take measures considered necessary to achieve legitimate purposes – including the creation of their own courts – national law should nevertheless be maintained and respected. Belgian magistrates – and in particular Mr R. de Rickère, judge at the Tribunal de première instance in Brussels – gave those rules their own interpretation: their constitutional duty excluded any collaboration, or contribution, to the enforcement of the occupant's laws; any deviation, even under duress, would engage their personal responsibility. In other words, they would resist to the point of bringing justice to a halt. This is in fact what happened in February 1918 following the proclamation, by the German inspired ‘Conseil des Flandres’ of a new Flemish State, on 21 January 1918. On 7 February, in compliance with Brussels Courd'appel's injunction that all members of the self-defined ‘Conseil’ should be prosecuted for violation of the constitutional guarantee of the equality of all Belgians citizens, two Flemish activists were held: German authorities responded by arresting four magistrates. On 11 February, all magistrates ceased their activities and were joined on that same day by lawyers. The ‘grève des magistrals’, as it became known, was largely followed all over the country. Several among the strikers were deported. It ended on 25 November 1918.