The Rome I Regulation on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations has unified the conflict of laws rules of the Member States. The influence of the European Union upon Private International Law goes beyond positive harmonisation however. There is a certain tension between European law and PIL. European law is concerned with whether the imposition of a rule constitutes a restriction to the internal market whereas PIL does not seek to neutralise the disadvantages that result from differences between national laws but instead tries to locate the geographical centre of the legal relationship. The present book attempts to identify the methodological disharmony between the two legal disciplines in the regulation of cross border contracts and proposes suggestions to enhance their mutual understanding.
European private international law is by now based mainly on a large body of uniform rules such as the Regulations Rome I, Rome II, Brussels I, Brussels I bis. This significant legislative output, however, does not take place in a vacuum. Rules of private international law have been earlier (and still are) adopted at national, international and even European level in scattered regulations and directives. The recent plethora of private international law rules gives rise to issues of delineation and calls for some sort of ordering as gaps, overlaps and contradictions become flagrant. At the same time, the resulting interactions can offer new insight, ideas and even opportunities at a more theoretical level. This book gathers a collection of essays resulting out of a series of international seminars held in Lyon, Barcelona and Louvain-la-Neuve. During those seminars, young researchers selected in an open call for papers had the opportunity to discuss their views among themselves as well as with various specialists of the field, such as more senior academics, EU civil servants, national experts and representatives of other international organisations. The book offers the fresh views of those who will in the future shape the dialectic between the various sources of private international law and attempts to launch a discussion on the “living together” of legal sources. Two ranges of topics are addressed in the book: - firstly, the relationship between EU private international law and national law (substantial and procedural) and/or international law (international instruments of private international law or of uniform substantive law); and - secondly, the relationship between EU private international law and other aspects of EU law (internal market rules of primary law, harmonisation through secondary law and other pieces of legislation enacted in the realm of the area of freedom, security and justice).
This concise book is mainly intended to be used as an introduction to the rules of private international law belonging to the legal system of the European Union. It provides legal practitioners with an overview of this highly complex field of law and can serve as an introductory textbook in elective undergraduate courses and master programs offered today by many law schools both to their own students and to exchange students from other countries. The book will hopefully also be useful as a spring-board towards more profound studies of statutory texts, case law and legal literature. Michael Bogdan is Professor of Comparative and Private International Law at the University of Lund, Sweden.
The harmonisation of private international law in Europe has advanced rapidly since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam. Most aspects of private international law are now governed or at least affected by EU legislation, and there is a subst
The idea of national codification is advancing on a global scale in conflict of laws. A large number of legislative projects dealing with codifying and modernizing private international law, both on the national and the supranational level, have been launched in the past few years. Among such recent initiatives, the advances taken by the European and the Japanese legislators are particularly reflecting these developments. On January 1, 2007, the new Japanese 'Act on General Rules for Application of Laws' entered into force replacing the outdated conflict of laws statute of 1898. This major reform finds its parallels in the current efforts of the European Union to create a modern private international law regime for its member states.This volume presents the first comprehensive analysis of the new Japanese private international law available in any western language and contrasts it with corresponding European developments. Most of the contributors from Japan are scholars who were actively involved in and responsible for preparing the new Act. All of them are renowned experts in the field of private international law. Leading European experts in the conflict of laws supplement the Japanese analyses with comparative contributions reflecting the pertinent discussion of parallel endeavours in the EU. To guarantee better understanding, English translations of both the present and the former Japanese statutes have been added.
This book systematically and exhaustively analyses existing PIL rules and issues in EU and national legislation, covering all EU Member States in the process. It then demonstrates that the characteristics of PIL themselves imply a framework for 'general issues' - independently from language, codification or underlying legal tradition.
Thoroughly revised and updated, this third edition of EU Private International Law incorporates many developments in legislation and case-law since the publication of the second edition in 2010. Building on the book�s reputation for comprehensive cover
Within Europe the private international law rules have been harmonized to a very large extent by legislation adopted at EU level and case-law on the interpretation of this legislation. Recent developments include the entry into operation of revised versions of the Brussels I Regulation on civil jurisdiction and judgments and the Regulation on insolvency proceedings, as well as numerous decisions of the European Court and the English courts. The new edition of this authoritative work takes account of recent developments at both EU and UK levels.
European private international law, as it stands in the Rome I, II, and III Regulations and the recent Succession Regulation, presents manifold risks of diverging judgments despite seemingly harmonised conflict of law rules. There is now a real danger, in light of the rapid increase in the number of legal instruments of the European Union on conflict of laws, that European private international law will become incoherent. This collection of essays by twenty noted scholars in the field sheds clear light on the pivotal issues of whether a set of overarching rules (a 'general part') is required, whether an EU regulation is the adequate legal instrument for such a purpose, which general questions such an instrument should address, and what solutions such an instrument should provide. In analysing the possible emergence of general principles in European private international law over the past years, the contributors discuss such issues and factors as the following: – the relationship between conflict of laws and recognition; - the room for party autonomy; - the concept of habitual residence; - adaptation when interplay between different laws leads to deadlock; - public policy exceptions; - the desirability of a general escape clause; - the classic topics of characterisation, incidental question, and renvoi; and - right to appeal in case of errors in the application of foreign law. Practitioners dealing with these notoriously difficult cases will welcome this in-depth treatment of the issues, as will interested policymakers throughout the EU Member States and at the EU level itself. Scholars will discover an incomparable comparative analysis leading to expert recommendations in European private international law, opening the way to an effective European framework in this area.
