Rome I Regulation

The Rome I Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations) is a regulation which governs the choice of law in the European Union. It is based upon and replaces the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations 1980. The Rome I Regulation can be distinguished from the Brussels Regime which determines which court can hear a given dispute, as opposed to which law it should apply. The regulation applies to all EU member states except Denmark, which has an opt-out from implementing regulations under the area of freedom, security and justice. The Danish government planned to join the regulation if a referendum on 3 December 2015 approved converting its opt-out into an opt-in, but the proposal was rejected. While the United Kingdom originally opted-out of the regulation they subsequently decided to opt-in.

The regulation sets out which law be used to interpret contracts with an international element (i.e. contracts agreed by parties in different countries). Pursuant to its Articles 28 and 29, the regulation came into force on 17 December 2009 and applies to contracts concluded after that date (beginning 18 December 2009).

The broad principle of Rome I was not only to harmonise choice of law rules in contract but, subject to certain safeguards, maximise the freedom of the parties to choose the law governing their contractual relations.

Article 1 contains a list of exclusions from the scope of the Regulation. These include:

Article 3 confirms the freedom of parties to choice the governing law of their contracts:

It also provides that the parties may agree to change the governing law, or to have different laws govern different parts of the contract.

Article 4 deals with contacts where the parties have made no express or implied choice of governing law. It provides broadly that:

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