This chapter focuses on the social and economic consequences of private international law, both for the distribution of power in a transnational setting and for issues of identity and community in a world in which new polities are emerging. Furthermore, it highlights the potential insights provided by each of three explanatory models, which in some novel combination may help pave the way towards a renewed theoretical approach to private international law. The three models to be considered are based on conflict, cooperation, and competition. Each uses a distinct vocabulary: protection of sovereignty or state interests, conflicts of systems or, more recently, norm-collision; international harmony, comity, enlightened self-interest, or the mutual convenience of nations; and regulatory arbitrage and competition, a free market for legal products and judicial services, and the interests of the business community.