According to the Commission, the main political goal behind the Common European Sales Law (CESL) is advancing cross-border trade between EU member states, thereby helping to further establish and strengthen a common market within the EU. The CESL is chosen and even symbolized by an already...

The principle of pacta sunt servanda is universally recognized. However, the binding nature of the contract is loosened to a certain extent in all legal systems if the circumstances of the contract change fundamentally. As an introduction to a broad comparative analysis of European Contract law,...

In 2011, the EU Commission presented a draft Regulation for a Common European Sales Law (“CESL”). The legislative proposal aims at removing obstacles to cross-border trade. It is based on the assumption that the differences between the contract laws of the Member States lead to increased...

Following the structure defined in the Review of the Consumer Acquis of 2004, the Commission adopted a Green Paper on 8 February 2007 and launched a consultation on some key issues on the future developments of EC consumer law. The Review of the Consumer Acquis (i.e. eight consumer directives)...

The focus of this paper is the regulation of standard terms in consumer contracts at common law, i.e., judges deciding cases in published opinions. In particular, I focus on the two most important common law doctrines in this area — unconscionability and good faith — and to a lesser extent...

The present article (written in German) discusses whether legal instruments creating uniform private law - either by way of a Convention (a treaty under public international law) or in some other form - should preferably be designed as quot;opt inquot; instruments (meaning that the uniform law...

This paper aims to present some preliminary ideas about the potential benefits and costs arising from the process of European Contract Law harmonization for the functioning of the existing national Contract Laws, and in the end, for the welfare of European societies. Some of those benefits and...

The purpose of this chapter is to concentrate on the development of the Acquis Principles (ACQP) on pre-contractual duties (particularly precontractual information duties) and their inclusion in the draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) - 2008 version. In doing so, there will first be a brief...

During the last decade, the EU has adopted three major sector-specific directives in the area of retail financial services – the Payment Services Directive, the Consumer Credit Directive, and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. All three directives are based on the idea of 'full,'...