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Identification of the Applicable Law in China and in Europe

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Book cover International Sale of Goods

Part of the book series: China-EU Law Series ((CELS,volume 5))

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Abstract

The comparison between the European and Chinese solutions concerning the identification of the applicable law to international sale of goods contracts is more and more easy. Both systems have now codified their rules for the determination of the law applicable to international contracts, including the sale of goods.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Article 28: Application in time “This Regulation shall apply to contracts concluded after 17 December 2009”.

  2. 2.

    For the contracts concluded before the entry in force of the Convention, the conflict-of-law rules of each State are applicable. The date of entry in force of the Convention is not the same for the different member States but they are all parties. For more details, see for example, Gaudemet-Tallon, Fasc. 552-11, n°16 and 35.

  3. 3.

    Article 3 “Freedom of choice” “1. A contract shall be governed by the law chosen by the parties”.

  4. 4.

    Giuliano and Lagarde (1980), p. 15.

  5. 5.

    The same approach can be found in article 2 of the 1955 Hague Convention.

  6. 6.

    Mellone and Nord (2013), p. 154.

  7. 7.

    Recital 11.

  8. 8.

    Zhang (2006), p. 315 and the references; Wang (2009), p. 3.

  9. 9.

    Zhang (2006), p. 294 and more generally, Li-Kotovtchikhine (2010), p. 947.

  10. 10.

    Art. 4 Rome Convention and Regulation Rome I.

  11. 11.

    Lagarde (1991), p. 287, n°19. The same solution is applicable for the 1955 Hague Convention, its article 2 using also the word “Law”.

  12. 12.

    (COM(2011) 635 final). For comments, see Schulze (2012), Deshayes (2012).

  13. 13.

    See already before, article 2(2) of the responses of the People’s Supreme Court to questions arising out of the application of the Foreign Economic Law of October 19, 1987.

  14. 14.

    Pissler (2012), p. 10; Huang and Jiang (2011), p. 12.

  15. 15.

    Interpretation on Several Issues concerning the Application of the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Laws to Foreign-Related Civil Relations”. For comments, see Leibküchler (2013), p. 88, Huo (2013), p. 685.

  16. 16.

    Xiao and Long (2009), p. 201.

  17. 17.

    Lagarde (1991), p. 287, esp. n°20; Jacquet, n°47 et s.; Gaudemet-Tallon, Fasc. 552-15, n°7; see before Curti-Gialdino (1972), 751 s., n° 53 and the references.

  18. 18.

    Xu (1989), p. 650.

  19. 19.

    Zhang (2006), p. 321.

  20. 20.

    Xiao and Long (2009), p. 197.

  21. 21.

    Article 3§1 second sentence: “The choice must be expressed or demonstrated with reasonable certainty by the terms of the contract or the circumstances of the case”.

  22. 22.

    Guiliano (1977), p. 215.

  23. 23.

    According to article 2§2, “Such designation must be contained in an express clause, or unambiguously result from the provisions of the contract”.

  24. 24.

    “To choose a law or alter a choice of law applicable to contractual disputes shall be done by the parties in an explicit manner”. See Li-Kotovtchikine (2002), p. 151.

  25. 25.

    The text of the “Model law of private International law of the people’s Republic of China” (Sixth draft, 2000) is published in the Yearbook of Private International Law, Vol. 3, 2001, 349.

  26. 26.

    In France, see Cass. Civ. 1ère 6 May 1997, n° 95-15.309, Bull. civ. I, n° 140; Rev. Crit. DIP 1997, 514, n. B. Fauvarque-Cosson.

  27. 27.

    See some decisions in Huang and Du (2005), p. 672 and in Xiao and Long (2009), pp. 198–199.

  28. 28.

    Huang and Du (2005), p. 672 et s.; Xiao and Long (2009), p. 198.

  29. 29.

    The solution is the same in article 3 of the 1955 Hague Convention according to which: “In default of a law declared applicable by the parties under the conditions provided in the preceding article, a sale shall be governed by the domestic law of the country in which the vendor has his habitual residence at the time when he receives the order. If the order is received by an establishment of the vendor, the sale shall be governed by the domestic law of the country in which the establish ment is situated”.

  30. 30.

    About the question in general, Tu and Xu (2011), p. 179.

  31. 31.

    CJEU 6 October 2009, Intercontainer Interfrigo SC (ICF) v. Balkenende Oosthuizen BV, MIC Operations BV, C-133/08.

  32. 32.

    CJEU 12 September 2013, Anton Schlecker v. Melitta Josefa Boedeker, C-64/12.

  33. 33.

    CJEU 23 October 2014, Haeger & Schmidt GmbH v. Mutuelles du Mans assurances IARD (MMA IARD), C-305/13.

  34. 34.

    Cerqueira and Nord (2011), p. 88.

  35. 35.

    For the same opinion, He (2012), p. 64.

  36. 36.

    For public policy, article 21 of the regulation Rome I: “The application of a provision of the law of any country specified by this Regulation may be refused only if such application is manifestly incompatible with the public policy (ordre public) of the forum” and article 5 of the Statute “Where the application of a foreign law will be prejudicial to the social and public interest of the PRC, the PRC law shall be applied”. For overriding mandatory provisions, Article 4 of the Statute “Where a mandatory provision of the law of the People’s Republic of China (‘PRC’) exists with respect to a foreign-related civil relation, that mandatory provision shall be applied directly” and Article 9 of the Regulation Rome I: “1. Overriding mandatory provisions are provisions the respect for which is regarded as crucial by a country for safeguarding its public interests, such as its political, social or economic organisation, to such an extent that they are applicable to any situation falling within their scope, irrespective of the law otherwise applicable to the contract under this Regulation.

    2. Nothing in this Regulation shall restrict the application of the overriding mandatory provisions of the law of the forum.

    3. Effect may be given to the overriding mandatory provisions of the law of the country where the obligations arising out of the contract have to be or have been performed, in so far as those overriding mandatory provisions render the performance of the contract unlawful. In considering whether to give effect to those provisions, regard shall be had to their nature and purpose and to the consequences of their application or non-application”.

  37. 37.

    For a situation in which a foreign overriding mandatory has been taken into consideration but not applied, concerning the Rome Convention, a decision of the French Cour de cassation, Com. 16 March 2010, JCP 2010, 530, obs. D. Bureau and L. d’Avout and the decision in the same case of the Court of Appeal of Poitiers, 29 November 2011, RTD Com. 2012, 217, obs. P. Delebecque.

  38. 38.

    See Chapter IV, Section II, “The law applicable to the Consumer contracts: protection and gaps in China and in Europe”.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Nicolas Nord

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Nicolas Nord

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France

    Gustavo Cerqueira

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Nord, N. (2017). Identification of the Applicable Law in China and in Europe. In: Nord, N., Cerqueira, G. (eds) International Sale of Goods. China-EU Law Series, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54036-8_3

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