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Course Introduction to International Business Law
Lecture 4

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Topics
•Revision lecture 3
–Questions
•Subjects of today:
–Introduction to ECO/Rome 1 (Source: Revised Chap.4 as PDF in your information system)
–Conditions on the use of Rome 1
–Content of Rome 1
–Law applicable to international torts
–Homework
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Introduction to ECO/Rome 1
•European Regulation on Contractual Obligations (ECO)
•Revision came into effect 17 December 2009
•Applicable to contractual obligations in general
•Provides an answer on the question which body of law is applicable on a disputed contract
•ECO gives “rules of reference”

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Conditions on the use of Rome 1
•Except for the United Kingdom and Denmark all EU-MS are submitted under Rome 1
•According to art. 25 Rome 1 is only applicable when there is no other specific Convention or
Treaty dealing with the same subject (for example the Vienna Sales Convention)
•As far as the specific regulations don’t answer the litigating matter, Rome 1 can be used as “gap
filling law “

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Content of Rome 1
•Art.3 : freedom of choice of parties
•Art.4: in case no choice of law was made or the choice cannot be demonstrated with reasonable
certainty
–Par. 1 under a up to and including h: specific contracts
–Par. 2  law of the country where the party resides who has to fulfil the characteristic
performance is applicable

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Content of Rome 1 (part 2)
•Special provisions:
–Art.5: contracts of carriage
–Art.6: consumer contracts
– par.2 a choice of law cannot deprive  the consumer of the protection of the law of his own
country which is the applicable law acc. to par.1
–Art.7: insurance contracts
–Art.8: individual employment contracts
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Content of Rome 1 (part 3)
–Art.8 : if no special law provision is mentioned in the individual employment contract ->
–Par.2: law of the country where the employee usually works is applicable
–Par.3: in case the employee is working in several countries, the law of the country of the
employer is applicable
–Par.1: a choice of law cannot deprive the employee of the protection of the law which is more
favorable to him according to
– art.8 par. 2 and par.3

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Content of Rome 1 (part 4)
•Art.9: a court of law can decide to put aside the rules of art.3 up to and including art.8 Rome 1
and put instead the mandatory rules of another law to the contract in case there are certain
circumstances to do so (Alnati-case).
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•Art.11: as long as the contract meets the formal requirements of the law chosen by the parties or
of the law of the country where the contract was concluded the contract is formally valid.

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Law applicable to international torts
•Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II)
–Applicable law to tort is general
–Applicable law in cases concerning for example product liability and environmental pollution
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Homework
•Exercise 2 Chapter 4
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