New Conflict of Laws Rules for Contractual Obligations in Europe: Trends and Perspectives

The topics are focused on the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) which applies to contracts concluded on or after 17 December 2009 in all EU Member States except Denmark. Also, the relevance of the Common Frame of Reference is intended to be addressed during this one-day conference.

The Rome I Regulation introduces some significant changes to the conflict of law rules contained in its predecessor the Rome Convention. Most important alterations concern the determination of the law applicable in the absence of parties’ choice, as well as the changes concerning the notion of ‘overriding mandatory provisions’ (loi de police). Besides, there is a number of new provisions included, such as special rule for insurance contracts, contracts of carriage, contractual subrogation, multiple liability and set-off. The conversion of the Rome Convention into an EC Regulation had been prepared by the Green Paper of 2003 and by the Proposal presented by the Commission in 2005. Both the Green Paper and the Proposal were extensively debated and commented by the private international law specialists. Some of the provisions contained in the Proposal were omitted from the final text of the Rome I Regulation, but have been incorporated in the Preamble. The relevance and the meaning of such provisions may give raise to discrepancy in their interpretation and difficulties in application in different EU Member States.