In an Opinion rendered on 8 September 2011 (for the text of the opinion click here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62010CC0384:EN:HTML), CJEU Advocate General Trstenjak cited a paper by Franco Ferrari, Professor of law and Director of the Center for Transnational Litigation and Commercial Law at NYU School of Law, when dealing with the relationship between the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) and 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, which the former replaced to some extent. As for said relationship, the Advocate General stated that “[t]he changes [introduced by the Regulation] were intended to modernise certain provisions of the Convention and give them a clearer or more precise wording with a view, ultimately, to enhancing legal certainty but without introducing new elements which would substantially change the existing legal position”. When doing so, it cited to the paper by Professor Ferrari, entitled From Rome to Rome via Brussels: remarks on the law applicable to contractual obligations absent of a choice by the parties, published in Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 751 (2009).
