Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
TERRITORY IN THE ROME I AND ROME II REGULATIONS
Andrew Dickinson*
This article addresses a number of interlinked issues concerning territorial and geographical aspects of the Rome I Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations, and its elder sibling, the Rome II Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations. In particular, it considers (a) where the Regulations apply, (b) whether there are any territorial or geographical limits on their material scope, (c) the meaning of references in the Regulations to “the law of” a “country”, and (d) the nature and application to particular situations of the connecting factors used in the Regulations’ cornerstone provisions.
This paper considers the territorial aspects of the Rome I and Rome II Regulations on the law applicable to contractual and non-contractual obligations, two of the principal instruments of EU private international law.1 In particular, the following questions will be addressed:
- 1. Where do the Rome I and Rome II Regulations apply?
* Professor in Private International Law, University of Sydney; Solicitor, England and Wales and Consultant, Clifford Chance LLP; Visiting Fellow, British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
This article is based upon a lecture given on 29 November 2011 at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, at the invitation of Professor Jürgen Basedow. An adapted version will be published in the collected lectures in the Hamburg Studies on Maritime Affairs 2011 and 2012 (eds J Basedow, U Magnus and R Wolfrum). I am very grateful to Professor Basedow and his colleagues for the warm welcome that I received at the Institute, and to those who attended the lecture for their insightful comments and questions. I would also like to express my thanks to Weidi Long (Institute of International Law, Wuhan University) for patiently answering my questions in relation to matters of Chinese law, discussed below, and for translating materials for me. Professor Francisco J Garcimartin (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) kindly commented on an earlier draft. Any errors or omissions are my own.
The following abbreviations are used:
Basedow (2010): J Basedow, “Rome II at Sea—General Aspects of Maritime Torts” (2010) 74 RabelsZ 118;
Calliess: G-P Calliess (ed.), Rome Regulations: Commentary on the European Rules on the Conflict of Laws (2011);
Dicey, Morris & Collins: Lord Collins of Mapesbury (ed.), Dicey, Morris & Collins: The Conflict of Laws, 15th edn (2012);
Dickinson: A Dickinson, The Rome II Regulation (Oxford, 2008);
ECJ: Court of Justice of the European Communities/Union;
Giuliano-Lagarde: Guiliano-Lagarde Report [1980] OJ C282/1 (31.10.1980);
Huber, Rome II Regulation (2011): P Huber et al (eds), Rome II Regulation (2011);
Plender & Wilderspin: The European Private International Law of Obligations (2009);
TEU: Treaty on European Union;
TFEU: Treaty on the Functioning of European Union.
1. Regulation (EC) No. 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) (OJ L177/6 [4.7.2008], as corrected OJ L309/71 [21.11.2009]); Regulation (EC) No.864/2007 on the law applicable to noncontractual obligations (Rome II) (OJ L199/40 [31.7.2007]). The two Regulations are referred to collectively as the “Rome Regulations”.
TERRITORY IN THE ROME I AND ROME II REGULATIONS
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