AGB-Reform und Rechtsflucht

Do German businesses flee to foreign legal systems through choice of law in their commercial contracts because of the national law on standard form contracts (AGB-Recht)? Should the German law therefore be liberalised? In the ongoing reform debate surrounding this issue, the risk of legal flight is emphasised. But how significant is it? Which companies would benefit from a liberalising reform and which would be harmed? And what does this imply for the design of the German law on standard form contracts? Antonia Sommerfeld examines these questions and provides important insights for the debate. She shows that the influence of the law on standard form contracts as a trigger for legal flight is overestimated and that an increased choice of German law in commercial contracts cannot be achieved by reforming the law on standard form contracts alone.

The work was awarded the Esche Schümann Commichau Stiftung 2021 sponsorship prize and the Werner von Melle Prize 2021 of the Hamburg Scientific Foundation.