Torts and Rome Regulation II [Non-Contractual Obligation]

An Indian tourist is injured when a rented scooter's brakes fail on a road in Bali. The scooter's maker is in Japan, the rental shop is Indonesian, and the tourist comes home to Thane and sues in India. Whose law decides whether the maker was negligent and how much compensation he pays: Indian, Indonesian or Japanese? With contracts the parties can choose a law in advance. With a wrong, nobody chose anything. That is the special difficulty of tort in private international law.

In two minutes

For a tort with a foreign element the court must choose the governing law without any agreement between the parties: the traditional rules look to the place of the wrong (and, in England, to the forum's law as well), while Rome II (Regulation (EC) No 864/2007) applies, in general, the law of the country where the damage occurs, with exceptions for a common residence and for closer connection.

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