Abstract

MARTINEZ LUNA, William Fernando. The Rigid Rules to Determine the Law Applicable to International Contracts in the European Unión. Evolution or regression?. Rev. Cient. Gen. José María Córdova [online]. 2014, vol.12, n.14, pp.111-126. ISSN 1900-6586.

The determination of applicable law to international contracts in absence of a choice of party in the European Union was governed for over twenty years by the article 4th of the Rome Convention of 1980. This precept mixed a high degree of flexibility to choose the law of the contract -through the principle of closest connection- with a moderated level of rigidity -presumption based on the characteristic performance theory-. Article 4th generated many difficulties of interpretation which caused a lot of contradictory judgments. Throughout the transformation of the Rome Convention of 1980 into a Regulation of the European Union, it was drawn upon to include significant changes to article 4^th; especial attention is paid to the establishment of rigid rules in order to inflexibly determine the applicable law to eight of the most important international contracts. This article aims to analyze if the rigid points to determine the applicable law represent a solution that achieves a high degree of legal certainty in the European Union.

Keywords : Applicable law; European Union; international private law; rigid rules; Rome I Regulation; Rome Convention.

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