Employment contracts in the international transport and maritime sectors

Jennifer Lavelle, Tutor in Law and PhD Candidate University of Southampton

In December 2011, in the case of Voogsgeerd v Navimer SA Case C-384/10, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down its third judgment concerning the interpretation of the Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations of 1980 (‘the Rome Convention’). The judgment interprets art 6 of the Convention, as regards the determination of the law applicable to individual employment contracts, where the employee carries out his work in more than one Contracting State. In this case, Mr Voogsgeerd served as chief engineer on two vessels whose navigation area extended from Belgium’s territorial waters to the North Sea.