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The Right Law for Construction? Choice of Law: Rome I and Rome II

Paper number
148

Philip Britton

August 2008

A paper derived from the eighth Michael Brown Lecture, given to the Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, King's College London, on 6th September 2007.

When a construction project or its parties have factual links with more than one legal system, what law will (or should) apply to decide any disputes? Philip Britton's paper looks at the importance of these issues, in contract, tort and restitution, discussing the impact on English law of the 2008 EC Regulation on choice of law in contract (Rome I), as well as the 2007 Regulation (Rome II) on choice of law in relation to non-contractual obligations and the potential impact of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Introduction: choice-of-law issues - Related issues: jurisdiction - Applying foreign law - Autonomy and its exercise - Arbitration: special issues - Choice of law in English law - Contracts and the Rome Convention - From Rome Convention to Rome I Regulation - EC choice-of-law rules on non-contractual obligations: Rome II - To Lisbon and beyond - Conclusions - Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.

The author: Philip Britton LLB, BCL is a former Director, now Visiting Professor, Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, King's College, London.

Text and appendices 51 pages.
PDF file size: 584k