This article is devoted to one of the most complex and little-studied aspects of international private law, a special group of norms that are not subject to the general principles and rules for choosing the applicable law and act as both a “protective” and “blocking” mechanism with respect to the influence of the competent legal order — the public order clause. This article is of particular interest in connection with the author’s attempt to present a qualitatively new view on the role and essence of this mechanism, the study of the features of the application of the public order clause within the framework of this study is aimed, first of all, at presenting a real picture of the formation of this phenomenon not exclusively as a mechanism of positive law, but as a response to the needs of society and the state in protecting the unshakable foundations of life and joint activities of a particular national community. In addition, the author is convinced that in its historical development, public order has overcome several transformations and in the context of the tendency to expand the field of private law relations, which are significantly influenced by the clause on public order, the exit of this mechanism beyond the exclusive contractual legal relations, it is necessary to assert the possible transformation and refraction of the traditional private law institution under the influence of a specific sphere of legal relations, as an example, the author refers to the sphere of cross-border insolvency.