Law applicable to contracts for the carriage of goods

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given its first judgment on the interpretation of the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations of 1980 (‘the Rome Convention’) which is given the force of law by s2 of the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990 in the United Kingdom. Although that Convention has been in force since 1 April 1991, the First Protocol of 19 December 1988 on the interpretation of the European Communities of the Rome Convention did not come into force until 1 August 2004. Therefore although the ECJ has referred to the Rome Convention when interpreting other conventions and regulations, this is the first case on the Rome Convention itself.

Yvonne Baatz, professor of maritime law and member of the Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton

where the parties have made no choice

The irony is that for all contracts concluded after 17 December 2009 a new regulation, Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (‘Rome I’), will apply in all EC Member States ¹, except Denmark, and some of the issues referred to the ECJ are answered in Rome I. However, the court’s judgment in Case C-133/08 Intercontainer Interfrigo SC (ICF) v Balkenende Oosthuisen BV, MIC Operations BV is important for the interpretation of contracts of carriage of goods concluded up to 17 December 2009 and will also help with some issues of interpretation of Rome I.