International contracts in the EU Conflictus Iurisdictionum et Conflictuum Legum. What future?

Abstract

This article aims to give a general overview of the way in which international contracts are regulated within the European Union, problematizing the implications of the conflictual approach in the designation of the applicable law. For a better contextualization of the problem, we will analyze, primarily, the jurisdiction rules of Regulation Brussels I bis - Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (recast) - only in contractual matters, and then the conflict rules of the Rome I Regulation – Regulation (EC) No. 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the applicable law to contractual obligations - maxime articles 3 and 4.This methodology is justified due to conflicts of jurisdiction; competence standards of the courts (including the possibility of the parties entering into pacts which assign jurisdiction) positioning themselves, chronologically, before the issue of the law applicable to the situation/conflict to be resolved (this by determining the principle of autonomy of the parties in choosing the applicable law to the contract or, in the absence of choice, through the “supplementary criterion”). Finally, we will seek to discuss the possibility of, under the principle of autonomy, the parties referring to nonstate law and what its implications are.