Private Business International Law,
exam review document
, Week 1
Drafting general terms & conditions
Starting with jurisdiction.
Brussels Ibis Regulation
- Art. 1: Substantive scope. Regulation applies to civil & commercial
matters.
- Art. 4: Formal scope. Domicile of the defendant prevails. Once a person is
not domiciled in a MS, the regulation WILL NOT APPLY.
- Art. 66: Temporal scope.
- Art. 25 – party agreement on JURISDICTION, the two parties may have
agreed on conferring jurisdiction to a particular court.
- Recognition of judgements within the MS Art. 36 Ibis.
- Enforcement of judgements within the MS Art. 38 Ibis.
Choice of forum clause
- Exclusive: Only one court has jurisdiction over a dispute that has arisen,
parties agree to it to be so.
- Non-exclusive: There is a designated competent court, however, parties can
still choose to sue elsewhere.
- Asymmetric: One party can only sue the other one within the borders of a
particular country, however, the other party may sue the defendant
anywhere/elsewhere. Big companies such as TripAdvisor may include such
forum clauses in their consumer contracts.
Exclusive choice of forum is usually the fairest option.
Now, applicable law.
Rome I Regulation
- Art. 3: Parties are free to choose whichever country’s laws they want to be
bound by. We can draft terms & conditions of a contract accordingly, relying
on such party autonomy. B2B contracts do not have limitations for the
choice of applicable law that governs the terms & conditions of a contract.