ABSTRACT
The Rome Convention applies to contracts of reinsurance, provided such contracts were concluded on or after 1 April 1991. It also applies to contracts of insurance, provided that the contract does not cover a risk situated in the territories of the Member States of the European Economic Community and that the contract was concluded on or after 1 April 1991. Incorporation of provisions from a different contract may well raise further issues. General words of incorporation may well not be enough to incorporate a choice of law clause. The Giuliano-Lagarde Report gives three examples of the sort of factual situations in which a choice of law will be demonstrated with reasonable certainty by the terms of the contract or the circumstances of the case: standard form contracts; jurisdiction and arbitration clauses; course of dealing between the parties. The German courts, like the English courts, have held that a jurisdiction clause is a “significant indicator” of a choice of law.
