During the recent years the most important factor in the development of private international law (PIL) rules applicable in Finland has been the intense development of EU PIL. However, our history is part of the explanation why private international law is not even today generally embraced in the work of attorneys and why a change of attitude as well as education is needed. Th e fact that private international law – in general – is not very familiar in Finland has probably led to its inapplicability in familial relations. In addition to the lack of knowledge, the lack of court cases may be due to the fact that in practice most distributions are carried out by the agreement of the spouses. If the parties cannot agree on the distribution of the matrimonial assets by themselves, it can be made offi cially, by a court-appointed distributor. Both of these are private processes and the end-results are not published or confi rmed in a court process (in case nobody contests the distribution in court.)
 
Since, in my opinion, understanding of the Finnish process concerning the distribution of matrimonial property is important, I will describe it shortly in the beginning of the chapter. Following this, I will move on to Finnish domestic PIL provisions on applicable law to the matrimonial property regime. I will also go through some of my observations concerning practical application of PIL in Finland that may be of interest to a reader. I will conclude the chapter with a hypothetical case with which I will demonstrate how the EU Matrimonial Property Regulation and domestic PIL provisions of the Marriage Act determine the applicable law diff erently and what positive changes the regulation has brought along and in what ways I consider it having confusing features. Th e subject of my article is the choice of applicable law and the spouses´ possibility to agree on the choice.