The paper discusses the evolution of private international law analyzing the rules governing crossborder family relations in order to identify the factors influencing the development of international family law at the present stage, and the trends that accompany it. The author concludes that private international law from an apolitical field of legal knowledge about ways to overcome the conflict is turning into a tool of legal policy that can provide an impact on cross-border relations. In the European Union countries, whose international private law has changed beyond recognition over several decades, this influence is especially noticeable. Attention is drawn to the consistent approach of European institutions, which has already significantly expanded the normative structure of international family law. Although international family law in the Russian Federation is subject to change, it is not so dynamic. Nevertheless, the author believes that a change in the status quo is inevitable and cannot but take into account objective factors that lie outside its limits. The transformation of interstate communities requires clarification of the list of the participants, the powers of their institutions to develop the norms of international family law, the territory of such norms; determining the legal outline of the state family policy — an adequate reflection of traditional family values in the rules of conflict law; development of information technologies — improvement of mechanisms for resolving cross-border family disputes.