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Les rapports entre droit économique et lois de police sont naturels. Le droit économique est une matière marquée par l’ordre public. En outre, à travers la mondialisation de l’économie, le droit économique a une forte tendance à s’internationaliser. La technique des lois de police, qui permet d’affirmer un ordre public dans le domaine international, a ainsi pour champ privilégié les matières économiques. En cela, cette technique permet de garantir l’effectivité du droit économique à l’échelle internationale, tant dans un objectif de régulation de l’économie que de protection des parties faibles. Toutefois, il existe certains risques d’ineffectivité liés à la stipulation de clauses de règlement des litiges et au contrôle communautaire de la mise en œuvre des lois de police nationales. La solution pourrait venir de l’élaboration d’un ordre public international matériel.

ECONOMIC LAW AND MANDATORY RULES (“LOIS DE POLICE”) The interfaces between economic law and mandatory rules or “lois de police”, are obvious since economic law rules are related to the public order, and are of mandatory character in nature. The trend we have witnessed toward the internationalization of the economic law is a direct consequence of the globalization of the economy. The emerging international public order results from the increased enforcement of mandatory rules (“lois de police”), at an international level, especially in areas related to economic law. The international application of mandatory economic rules not only guarantees the regulation of the market at the international level, but also ensures a better protection of the economically weaker business actors. However this trend of setting up an international economic order by applying economic related rules can be hindered by the freedom of the economic actors to contractually regulate their potential litigations. Hence by exercising their freedom to choose the applicable law, to conclude forum choice agreements, or to solve their dispute by arbitration, economic actors can potentially hinder the effectivity of the mandatory economic rules. The community control of the enforcement of the national mandatory rules (“lois de police nationales”) can also potentially undermine their enforceability. A solution could come from the setting up of an international public order, with international substantive rules of mandatory applicability.