Rome II Regulation


The Rome II Regulation No is a European Union Regulation regarding the conflict of laws on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations. From 11 January 2009, the Rome II Regulation creates a harmonised set of rules within the European Union to govern choice of law in civil and commercial matters concerning non-contractual obligations, including specific rules for tort/delict and specific categories of tort/delict, unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio and culpa in contrahendo. Additionally, in certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, the parties may choose the law applicable to a non-contractual obligation. Analogous rules were established for contractual obligations by the Rome Convention of 1980. The Rome Convention has, in turn, been replaced by the Rome I Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations. The regulation applies to all EU member states except Denmark.

Background

Initially submitted by the Commission in July 2003, an amended text was finally adopted on 11 July 2007 and published in the Official Journal on 31 July 2007. It applies from 11 January 2009. It may apply to obligations arising from events giving rise to damage occurring from 20 August 2007, although the text of the Regulation is unfortunately silent on this point.
To accommodate concerns earlier raised by the European Parliament at Second Reading stage in January 2007, the Commission is mandated to draw up a study by December 2008 on applicable law in defamation and privacy disputes, which have been excluded from the Regulation as a result of the difficulties in agreeing appropriate choice of law rules for these matters. That study has not yet been formally published. This is in addition to their preparing a report within 4 years on the results of practical application of the Regulation, including a specific study of its effects in road traffic accident disputes.