Equality in the Application of “Imperative Norms”: A “More Equal than Others” Principle in EU Conflict of Laws in Contractual Matters?

Under the focal lens of conflict of laws, the principle of equality leads to the argument that all laws tend to be considered equals, being thus of little relevance for a legal system what foreign substantive law is applied by courts. Other than the known exceptions to the rule, the present work seeks to advocate that in quasisister States, such as Member States of the European Union, and in traditional fields where judicial cooperation is long established, as contractual obligations might be, avoidance techniques have been developed to ensure that safeguard mechanisms methodologically operate in different ways depending on whether courts apply the law of a quasi-sister State or the law of a third Country, thus paving the way for a ‘more-equal-than-others’ principle.