Conflict-of-law rules for contractual obligations in the EU05/08/08 / cata_european-union-news
European Parliament and Council Regulation No. 593/2008 (Official Bulletin No. L 177) on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I), starts from the original Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations that has been adopted in 1980 but not yet a part of the European Law. The Regulation implements certain changes to the original Convention in the direction of modernization and specification thereof.
The factual applicability of a regulation should be in compliance with Regulation No. 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I) and Regulation No. 864/2007 on the law applicable to noncontractual obligations (Rome II). Therefore it has an impact on contractual obligations pursuant to the civil and commercial law, except for some explicitly excluded issues (such as the legal capacity, personal status, family relations, bills of exchange and promissory notes and cheques, commercial companies). The Regulation starts from the primacy of the choice of law. In the absence of choice of law article 4, paragraph 1 of the Regulation contains the list of types of contracts for which the decisive law is then determined by the regulation. If it is impossible to subordinate a concrete agreement under these provisions, it is the law of the state, where the party required to effect the characteristic performance of the contract has his habitual residence. If it is impossible to determine the decisive law in this manner, the principle of the narrowest connection is applied; the contractual relation shall be governed by the law of the country with which it is the most closely connected. Article 6 also contains specific regulations for consumer agreements.