Abstract
This essay shows the need for a revision and modernisation of the Italian Law No 218/1995 with respect to the law applicable to i) contractual and ii) non-contractual obligations. With regard to the first category, the development of the European system of private international law makes a general national conflict-of-law rule such as the one at Article 57 of Law No 218/1995, based on a referral "in all the cases" to the 1980 Rome Convention, of little relevance, if not counterproductive. This is true especially from the practice point of view (and it would remain true even assuming that the referral in such provision were updated and made to the Rome I Regulation). As to non-contractual obligations, many rules in Title XI of Law No 218/1195 have been supersesed by some provisions of the Rome II Regulation. On the other hand, the main torts still governed by national law – i.e., "the violaton of privacy and rights relating to personality, including defamation" – call for a reconsideration of the connecting factor traditionally used in this area of the law (the lex loci delicti).