The Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations: Comparative Analysis of the Choice of Law Rules under Lithuanian and the United States Law

Abstract

This article deals with the specific provisions of the new Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania that establish the rules used in order to determine the law applicable to contractual obligations (Article 1.37). The purpose of the article – to show the origins of the private international law rules established in the Lithuanian Civil Code and by employing the comparative analysis method to explain their content and meaning. Special emphasis is made to those provisions, which determine the law applicable to the contractual obligations, when the contracting parties failed to choose such law by themselves. By referring to the writings of the world-known legal scholars, author analyzes Lithuanian private international law rules and compares them with the relevant provisions under the American choice of law. Having in mind the unlike legal traditions in Lithuania and in the United States, the existing differences and similarities of various legal concepts are also explained. The great majority of Lithuanian private international law rules are taken from the Rome Convention On the Law Applicable to the Contractual Obligations as of 19 June 1980, therefore this Convention, where relevant, is also analyzed. It is expected that this article will be helpful in understanding the private international law rules under the Lithuanian Civil Code, which are both new and rather complicated.