Applicable law
6th September 2016
My query relates to the provision below, in particular to the sentence “excluding its conflict of law provisions“ spider dream interpretation
This Consortium Agreement shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of Belgium excluding its conflict of law provisions
I read the elucidation notes about how to get over a breakup faster and I am wondering whether the said sentence should be deleted in cases where the applicable law of a Project’s Grant Agreement is the EU anielskie liczby law, supplemented if necessary by the law of Belgium. Can you please clarify? Thanks
October 21st, 2016 at 5:48 pm
We understand your question to relate to two aspects:
– The hint in the elucidations to check what law the Grant Agreement is governed by, and to harmonise if necessary
This may partly be a leftover from FP7, in which the Grant Agreement was sometimes based on Belgian law, sometimes on the law of Luxembourg. Indeed the H2020 Grant Agreement is under EU law, supplemented by the law of Belgium. The GA regards the relationship between the beneficiaries and the funding authority EU – hence EU law. The Consortium Agreement however is between the beneficiaries, so Belgian law to us seems the relevant choice.
The note on cross-checking the applicable law in the Grant Agreement in the elucidations mainly aims at cases in which DESCA2020 is used as a starting point for CA negotiations in other research funding programmes.
– The phrase “excluding its conflict of law provisions”
That phrase was inserted to make clear that the material law of Belgium shall apply in any case. As you will be aware, conflict of law provisions are rules for cases which have an international aspect and where you need to find out the law of which country actually applies. If the Consortium Agreement were governed by Belgian law *including* its conflict of law rules, then you might eventually end up with another country’s law being applicable. This is what we wish to avoid by adding the part you mention.