Decision of the Court of Cassation, I Civil Section, No. 21712 of 30 September 2015

The Court of Cassation examined the appeal against a decision concerning a debt in favour of a casino based in France, which the Italian judge on the merits had grounded on Article 1965 of French civil code. For the Court of Cassation, this choice was correct because in line with the criteria laid down in Article 4 of the Rome Convention of 1980 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations. On other hand, the judge on the merits had omitted to interpret Article 1965 of the ‘code civil’ in light of French jurisprudence. This was in contrast with Italian legislation on private international law, under which national courts must, when applying foreign provisions, conform to the interpretation given to these norms in their own legal system (Article 15 of law No. 218/1995).