Abstract :
From the Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations (the Rome Convention) to the Rome I Regulation2, mandatory rules (provisions) have been in a controversial situation for a long period. The effect of the mandatory rules on contracts and their correlation with party autonomy are also debatable in private international law area. Party autonomy is always thought as one of the basic principles of international contracts. It has been paid much attention to since the first day it existed. So it is not surprising that ʹthe delineation of the proper ambit of party autonomy, and the extent to which it should be subordinated to mandatory law or public-policy principles, preoccupies much private-international-law scholarship.ʹ3 As the Rome I Regulation come into force, the new article about mandatory rules has brought more debates than ever before. Whether the new article in the Rome I Regulation has its own innovation or not and what is its effect upon party autonomy have also been argued fiercely.
