Choice of law in Europe

For awhile now I’ve been talking about a market for law. Here’s my latest effort, with Erin O’Hara. There’s also book in the works (more on that to come).

This Saturday Erin and I are taking our act to Durham, NC, where we’ll be speaking at a Duke conference on The New European Choice of Law Revolution. The affair is motivated by important choice of law develpments in Europe, particularly including regulations on contractual (“Rome I”) and non-contractual (“Rome II”) obligations.  Among other things, these rules allow significant party autonomy regarding contracting for the applicable law that arguably exceeds what’s available under US rules.

Erin and I will argue that while Europe wins on rules, US law, culture and institutions favor party mobility among the states, which ultimately drives the market for law. We plan to be posting the paper soon.