This article addresses the question of the law governing commercial agency agreements. It analyses the European Court of Justice case law related to conflict-of-laws issues involving the application of the European Directive 86/653 on self-employed commercial agents. The Directive aims at harmonising national laws which govern the relationship between commercial agents and their principals by ensuring a minimum level of protection for commercial agents. Throughout the Ingmar and Agro cases, this article examines the objectives of the Directive, the special status of compensation and indemnity regime provided by the Directive as well as the territorial scope and the connecting factor with this Directive. It then reviews the sources of conflict-of-laws and the definition of overriding mandatory rules through the Unamar case. Finally, it addresses the question of arbitrability of commercial agency agreements mainly from a Belgian perspective in light of the controversy which took pace in that country due to the specificities of the Belgian Agency Law.
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Front Matter
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PART I: THE PRE- AND THE POST-AWARD STAGE IN INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION VIS-À-VIS EU LAW AND THE EUROPEAN ATTITUDE TOWARD ANTI-SUIT RELIEF
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PART II: SELECTED AREAS OF INTERSECTION BETWEEN EU LAW AND INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION
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PART III: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT ARBITRATION AND EU LAW
