Defining Internationally Mandatory Rules in European Private International Law of Contracts

Internationally Mandatory Rules represent a private international law method that has acquired a certain degree of recognition in case law, legal codifications and scholarship. Yet, there seems to be insufficient clarity regarding their conceptual features. This article looks into the two basic conditions under which a rule may be characterised as being internationally mandatory, particularly within the framework of the European Union private international law: the interest criterion and the overriding criterion. It discusses the development and analysis the wording of the provisions contained in the Rome Convention and the proposal for its conversion into the Rome I Regulation. It propounds that not only the "interventionist" rules, but also the combined "interventionist- protective" rules may be classified as internationally mandatory