The common European sales law and mandatory provisions in the conflict of laws

This article analyses the relationship between the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL) and mandatory provisions of national law. It is argued that the embedding of this optional sales regime in the conflict of laws makes the application of mandatory provisions inevitable. In particular the application of overriding mandatory provisions might disturb the planned operation of CESL and render the desired harmonisation illusory. This should be taken as a reason to rethink the overly broad definition of overriding mandatory provisions under the Rome I Regulation and rationalise this intruder into the conflict of laws system