1Our editorial begins with a thought for our readers and authors in the context of the current dramatic events that preside over the preparation-from now on through virtual meetings-of this issue. At a time when the citizens of the world are trying to escape by exchanging games, jokes, culinary and other tips (haaa, Ravel's Boléro by the National Orchestra of France!), instructions (dressmakers, seamstresses, now to your scissors!) so as to make confinement-life, even-more bearable, we come for our part-as far as our means allow-with a recipe for private international law in confinement. Nothing exceptional here. Celebrating the centenary of the Revue critique de droit international privé, did Paul Lagarde not point out that it had never remained foreign to the upheavals of his time [1]? As soon as events-of whatever nature-are not purely hexagonal, they fall within the vocation of private international law and our review can but accompany thir unfolding: such was the case in the past with armed conflicts or the advent of the Common Market, and now Brexit Thus it is too twith his new pandemic which has stopped the world economy.

2Indeed, in the midst of the Covid 19 crisis, the global introduction of the state of exception has led the community of lawyers to reflect on the role of the law. On the side of human rights, the concern is the possible abuse involved in the voluntary submission of whole populations to the governmental injunction to transfer our health and travel data. Tracing and geolocalization are currently being considered and debated, where until recently they were essentially contested as contrary to the rule of law [2]. At the same time, feminists deplore the increase in domestic violence behind closed door, or, more positively, or the emergence of the ethics of care [3]. Yet another focus is the advent of stochastic governance and its vocation to replace the entirety of the law, after the first forays into predictive justice. Not to mention the expert, now more powerful than the politician or the jurist [4]. Still other critical perspectives recall the political use that has been made in the past of epidemic phenomena [5], while legal philosophers reflect on the place occupied by bio-politics in the political-legal order [6], and many of our transalpine neighbours are exploring the close links between law and political theology. Among them, Giorgio Agamben-whose voice has sounded from Italy [7]-has given new relevance to the debate on Carl Schmitt's controversial doctrine on the place of the exception within the nomos of the earth [8] Meanwhile, the quest for transnational moral and legal responsibilities is already flourishing: as we write, according to the Agence France Presse, the state of Missouri has just filed a lawsuit against China on the 22^nd of April 2020, accusing Beijing of having concealed the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic and thus caused irreparable economic and human damages in this American state and in the world [9], while in Europe, some people are wondering about the potential liability of the Tyrol region [10]

3Given these global societal reactions, what can the contribution of the internationalist-privatists be?

4It might take one of two forms. First, by virtue of its raison d'être, which is to apprehend internationality in all its diversity, it might contribute to thinking about the state of exception-that is precisely pre-eminent within the discipline. Public policy, overriding mandatory rules [11], escape clauses [12] Could there not be lessons here on ways of containing the exception within reasonable limits, on the method to be followed in order to implement it, on its sometimes invisible links with other concepts or prescriptive devices? At a time when some are calling for the absolute closure of borders, it is indeed urgent to understand how best to continue to embrace otherness [13]. It seems judicious to follow the suggestion made by some particularly creative authors in our field, who envisage the mobilization of the tools of private international law as an intellectual model for thinking about the norm as well as the exception and the relationship between the two [14]. With this perspective in mind, our review will endeavour to analyse the current situation and the means deployed to try to curb its most disastrous effects, certainly in terms of public health, but also from an economic, political, social or legal perspective.