Article by Jan von Hein
In the following Article on the Rome II Regulation, I focus on the methodological issues underlying the creation of the first nearly comprehensive European regulation on conflict of laws in a specific area, in this case, torts. I come to the conclusion that the Regulation, for the most part, closely follows European member states' classic conflicts methodology (in a Savignian sense) rather than a completely new European solution (country of origin), the Hague Convention kaleidoscopic method (apart from article 5 of Rome II), or American concepts akin to the Second Restatement that were favored by the European Parliament. I then explain the somewhat unexpected result that a supranational legislative act bears strong similarities to solutions that had been favored before by national parliaments acting without international pressure to unify their laws. The lesson from the European experience is that an evolution of choice-of-law rules from the bottom up is preferable to a revolutionary top-down solution that has no roots in domestic legal cultures.
About the Author
Jan von Hein. Professor of German, Comparative, and International Private Law, University of Trier. First State Exam 1994, Second State Exam 1997, Dr. jur. 1998, Habilitation 2007, University of Hamburg.
Citation
82 Tul. L. Rev. 1663 (2008)