OBLIGATIONS, ARISING OUT OF DEALINGS PRIOR TO THE CONCLUSION OF A CONTRACT WITH FOREIGN PARTNERS: EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE OF CONFLICTS-OF-LAW REGULATION
The article covers the analysis of conflict-of-law regulation of obligations, arising out of dealings prior to contract conclusion in European law. Such regulation is described in article 12 of the Regulation (EC) No. 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II). The author considers conflict-of-law regulation of precontractual relations from the perspective of the following aspects: possibility of applying the agreement about the law applicable to precontractual relations; applying the contractual connecting factor for determining the law applicable to precontractual relations; exploration of other connecting factors applicable to the precontractual relations in case of impossibility to determine the applicable law on the basis of the contractual connecting factor. The author draws the conclusion that the opportunity given to the negotiating parties to choose the applicable law is in line with the tendency of private international law development towards the extension of the parties' autonomy. In the absence of such choice, Rome II Regulation contains a special conflict-of-law regulation, which accommodates parties' interests.