Assignment of Claims and Proprietary Effects: Overview of Doctrinal Debate and the EU Commission’s Proposal

Both the 1980 Rome Convention and the Rome I Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations have not addressed the issue of the proprietary effects of assignments. Intense doctrinal debate, discussion of the issue in various appellate courts’ jurisprudence as well as (limited) empirical research are the basis for a current draft Regulation that proposes a two-tiered system of connecting factors (law of the assignor’s habitual residence, law of the assigned claim in specific cases). Subject to a few clarifications that are, in the author’s view, highly recommendable the instrument will deliver greatly enhanced legal certainty.