Il regolamento UE 1259/2010 sulla legge applicabile al divorzio e alla separazione personale nell’ottica della protezione dei diritti fondamentali, fra finalità integrazionista e valorizzazione dell’identità individuale

The paper deals with the conflict-of-law rules laid down in EU Reg. No 1259/2010 on the law applicable to divorce and legal separation, through the lens of respect for fundamental rights, analysing on the one hand the goal of integration of thirdcountry nationals and on the other hand the protection of cultural identity. In this respect, it is submitted that the regulation ensures openness and dialogue between legal systems, as typical of modern conflict-of-laws systems, and that the references made to fundamental rights in the regulation act as parameters for integration, able to strike a balance between the “hard core” of human rights on one side, and pluralism and tolerance on the other one. The compromise reached through these principles (in primis the principle of nondiscrimination) constitutes at the same time the framework in which the EU reveals its opening vis-à-vis other legal systems built on very different roots, in order to protect cultural identity. It also results in a comparison in which any form of “absolutism” is rejected, avoiding that a conflict of laws degenerates into a clash of civilizations.