Rome II and Tort Conflicts: A Missed Opportunity Abstract Contents

SYMEON C. SYMEONIDES ROME II AND TORT CONFLICTS
B. Structure. ................................................8
C. Certainty vs. Flexibility......................................8
D. Jurisdiction-Selection or Content-Oriented Law-Selection. . . . . . . . . . 9
E. State or National Interests...................................12
F. Issue-by-Issue Analysis and Dépeçage. ........................13
IV. THE GENERAL RULE.............................................15
V. THE EXCEPTIONS................................................20
A. The List.................................................20
B. The Common Habitual-Residence Rule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
C. The General Escape........................................24
1. The Closer-Connection Escape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2. The Pre-existing Relationship Exception.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
D. Compensation for Traffic Accidents.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
VI. PRODUCT LIABILITY.............................................34
VII. ENVIRONMENTAL TORTS. .......................................37
VIII. RULES OF “SAFETY AND CONDUCT”...............................39
IX. PARTY AUTONOMY. ............................................43
X. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS..........................................44
1. The English text of the Regulation can be found in the Official Journal of the European Union,
2007 O.J. (L 199) 40. Excerpts discussed in this essay are reproduced in an Appendix at ???,
infra.
2. ROME II, closing sentence. See also Treaty establishing the European Community, art. 249(2).
3. ROME II, art. 32.
I. INTRODUCTION
On July 11, 2007, the European Parliament and the Council of the European
Union adopted “Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 on the Law Applicable to
1
Non-Contractual Obligations” known as “Rome II.” In European Union parlance,
2
a regulation is “binding . . . and directly applicable” in all member countries without
the need for implementing national legislation in each individual country. The
3
Regulation is scheduled to go into effect on January 11, 2009. It will preempt the
4
national choice-of-law rules of the European Union’s member states on noncontractual
obligations arising from torts or delicts and from other acts or facts. 5
Unlike some other regulations which apply only within the European Union, Rome
II will have “universal application,” in the sense that it will cover torts occurring both
within and outside the Union, and it may lead to the application of the law of a nonmember
state. Rome II is a dramatic step in the federalization or “Europeanization”
4. Rome II will not apply to Denmark. See ROME II, recital (40), art. 1(4).
5. Among the non-contractual obligations arising from acts other than torts are those arising from
unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio, and culpa in contrahendo. Rome II covers these
obligations in arts. 10-12. This essay does not discuss these articles.
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