About Rules and Principles, Codification and Legislation, Harmonization and Convergence, and Education in the Area of Contract Law

Experts in contract law from different Member States have drafted two volumes of Principles of European Contract Law, which are based on ‘rules’ contained in the contract laws of the EU Member States. But contrary to the (unformulated) principles referred to in Article 288(2) EC, they are worded in very precise terms, and structured and numbered in the same way as articles are in a ‘civil code’. This chapter argues that the aforementioned Principles of European Law are rules, not principles. Moreover, taken together they form a fully fledged European Code of Contract Law — or, more...

Experts in contract law from different Member States have drafted two volumes of Principles of European Contract Law, which are based on ‘rules’ contained in the contract laws of the EU Member States. But contrary to the (unformulated) principles referred to in Article 288(2) EC, they are worded in very precise terms, and structured and numbered in the same way as articles are in a ‘civil code’. This chapter argues that the aforementioned Principles of European Law are rules, not principles. Moreover, taken together they form a fully fledged European Code of Contract Law — or, more appropriate, it would seem, a European Contract Law Act.