The position is the same if domestic law confers on national courts a discretion to apply of their own motion binding rules of law: national courts must apply the EC competition rules, even when the party with an interest in application of those provisions has not relied on them, where domestic law allows such application by the national court.

As for the innovations to be incorporated into the Convention of Rome, first of all we could introduce the principle to ensure that, when the law of a third country was chosen, the primacy of mandatory Community law rules, for instance to protect the weaker party (employees, consumers), would at all events be guaranteed.

– (EL) Madam President, military manoeuvres and Guantanamo analyses aside, mankind is on trial now, as are our willingness and ability to sustain a world in which the rules of law agreed a priori will prevail, because only then will we retain the moral and political right to judge everyone else who is indifferent to or tramples international rules of law underfoot, be they terrorists, the Taliban, anyone at all.

On behalf of the Basque Nationalist Party, I would also like to say that our overwhelming priority is the ethical principles of human rights and, above all, the right to life.

(23) This Directive neither aims to establish additional rules on private international law relating to conflicts of law nor does it deal with the jurisdiction of Courts; provisions of the applicable law designated by rules of private international law must not restrict the freedom to provide information society services as established in this Directive.

(9) Whereas the seller should be directly liable to the consumer for the conformity of the goods with the contract; whereas this is the traditional solution enshrined in the legal orders of the Member States; whereas nevertheless the seller should be free, as provided for by national law, to pursue remedies against the producer, a previous seller in the same chain of contracts or any other intermediary, unless he has renounced that entitlement; whereas this Directive does not affect the principle of freedom of contract between the seller, the producer, a previous seller or any other intermediary; whereas the rules governing against w ...[+++]hom and how the seller may pursue such remedies are to be determined by national law;