Contratto di lavoro marittimo e legge applicabile: quale ruolo per la escape clause?

The article analyses the escape clause provided for in Regulation No. 593/2008 (Rome I) concerning the law applicable to employment contracts, in order to assess its specific characteristics within the diverse scenario offered by clauses of the same type that can be inferred, in contemporary private international law, from domestic, international and EU sources. Having established that the clause provided for in Article 8(4) of the Regulation is, at least prima facie, proximity-focused, the contribution examines the delicate interpretative issues raised by such clause, as it is transposed into a conflict-of-law rule in permanent tension between opposing values: predictability versus flexibility of solutions; protection of material interests versus enhancement of the closest connections. Thus, also in light of experience in the maritime field, there is a clear need to seek a balance which, without sacrificing the crucial objective of legal certainty, excludes its “tyrannical” role with respect to the additional, co-essential purposes pursued by the provision in question.