The Harmonisation of European Contract Law

Implications for European Private Laws, Business and Legal Practice

Stefan Vogenauer, Stephen Weatherill, Stefan Vogenauer, Stephen Weatherill

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781841135915
• eBook ISBN: 9781847311276
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Comparative Law
• Index: Law

After an extended period in which the European Community has merely nibbled at the edges of national contract law, the bite of a 'European contract law' has lately become more pronounced. Many areas of law, from competition and consumer law to gender equality law, are now the subject of determined efforts at harmonisation, though they are perhaps often seen as peripheral to mainstream commercial contract law. Despite continuing doubts about the constitutional competence of the Commission to embark on further harmonisation in this area, European contract law is now taking shape with the Commission prompting a debate about what it might attempt. A central aspect of this book is the report of a remarkable survey carried out by the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law in collaboration with Clifford Chance, which sought the views of European businesses about the advantages and disadvantages of further harmonisation. The final report of this survey brings much needed empirical data to a debate that has thus far lacked clear evidence of this sort. The survey is embedded in a range of original and up-to-date essays by leading European contract scholars reviewing recent developments, questioning progress so far and suggesting areas where further analysis and research will be required

Table of contents

• Half Title Page
• Half Title verso
• Title Page
• Title verso
• Contents
• Contributors
• Series Editor's Foreword
• Table of Cases
• Table of Domestic Legislation
• Table of EC Legislation
• Table of International Legislation and Principles
• 1. The Spectre of a European Contract Law
• 2. Harmonisation of European Contract Law: The State We Are In
• 3. English Law Reform and the Impact of European Private Law
• 4. The Ideal of Codification and the Dynamics of Europeanisation: The Dutch Experience
• 5. Contract Law Reform: The German Experience
• 6. Constitutional Issues - How Much is Best Left Unsaid?
• 7. The European Community's Competence to Pursue the Harmonisationi of Contract Law - an Empirical Contribution to the Debate
• 8. Harmonisation of and Codification in European Contract Law
• 9. Contracts and European Consumer Law: an OFT Perspective
• 10. The Commission's Communications and Standard Contract Terms
• 11. Non-Legislative Harmonisation: Protection from Unfair Suretyships
• 12. Harmonisation of European Insurance Contract Law
• 13. European Contract Law - What Does It Mean and What Does It Not Mean?
• 14. Harmonisation of European Contract Law - the United Kingdom Government's Thinking
• 15. Concluding Observations
• Index