Introductory remarks Both in EU Private International Law (EU PIL) and in Chinese New Private International Law (Chinese New PIL) it was deemed important to adopt special rules to determine the law applicable to consumer contracts and employment contracts with the purpose of protecting the weaker party.But those rules have existed for longer in the EU system than in the Chinese system,because they were already mentioned in the Rome Convention of 19 June 1980 on the law applicable to contractual obligations,replaced by the Rome Ⅰ Regulation of 17 June 2008,whereas the Law of the People's Republic of China on the laws applicable to foreign related civil relationsof 28 October 2010,in force since 1 st April 2011,is not only the first statute on conflict of law rules in general,①but also the first law which has adopted special conflict of law rules for consumer contracts and employment contracts,different from those governing contracts in general.