Brussels, 03/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission presented a "preliminary draft proposal" on the adoption of Community rules for determining the law applicable to non-contractual obligations. This text is intended to ensure that, in whichever court where a cross-border litigation on a non-contractual obligation is judged, the judge will know, on the basis of rules common to the Fifteen, which law has to apply. This will allow one to be sure that the same law is applied whatever the court. For now, each Member State has its own rules to determine which law to apply in a litigation stemming from a non-contractual obligation. This working paper will be followed by a genuine draft regulation once the Commission has consulted all parties interested. The text, so-called "Rome II", will then become part of the 1980 Convention of Rome, which aligned laws relating to legislation applicable to contractual obligations, and complement the Council regulation of 22 December 2000 that determines which is the competent jurisdiction. By definition, non-contractual obligations are all obligations arising with regard to a third party when a contract is signed. They include issues of civil liability due to a defective product or pollution and the like. In terms of non-contractual obligations arising from a crime, the Commission proposes that a priori the law that applies should be the law of the country where the damage occurs, except where the author of the crime and the injured party reside in the same country (in which case, that country's law would apply), or if the sum total of the circumstances surrounding a crime is substantially more connected with another country, in which case the law of that country would apply. Specific measures are proposed for liability arising from products, competition and unfair competition, libel and environmental damage. For non-contractual obligations not arising from a crime, if people are already linked by a prior relation, the law applying to that relation will also apply. Unjustified enrichment will a priori be subject to the law of the country where it occurs, while an obligation resulting from business management will a priori be covered by the law of the country where the business was managed. The parties in a dispute can always opt for the law of their choice to apply as long as that does not damage the rights of third parties. The regulation will lay down general rules in terms of which legal system applies, while particular rules for specific non-contractual obligations already set by EU law (and differing from the general principles) will remain applicable. It will also always be possible to set derogations in future legislation. The document can be consulted online at http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/civil/consultion/ index_en.htm Reactions to the proposal can be sent to jai-coop-jud-civil@cec.eu.int until 15 September 2002.