ABSTRACT
The Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990 gives effect in the UK to the Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations.40 The Rome Convention is a further move towards the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States of the European Union.41 Work on the Convention began in 1969 after the completion of the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments42 in 1968. The Contracts (Applicable Law) Act came into force on 1 April 1991 and, thus, the Rome Convention applies to contracts made after that date.43 It puts the English conflict of laws on contracts on to a statutory basis for the first time, replacing the common law rules. It has been argued, on the one hand that the greatest contribution of English law to the conflict of laws was the development of the doctrine of the proper law of the contract; indeed, some writers have even asserted that there is no need to alter this area of law.44 Moreover, there were fears that foreign litigants might lose confidence in the Commercial Court’s ability to deal with non-European cases if an essentially European model replaced the common law rules. It can be argued, on the other hand, that the Convention adopts many of the principles of the English conflict of laws, including the right of contracting parties to select the law to govern their dealings free from any requirement that the chosen law be factually connected with the contract. Initially, at least, there is not likely to be any major change in the approach of English courts to the disposition of contract conflict cases except, possibly, in the areas of employment and consumer contracts for which the Convention makes special provision where the common law had none.
