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Harmonisation of European Contract Law: Citizenship, Diversity and Effectiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2017

Hugh Collins
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Extract

Proposals from the European Commission to work towards greater harmonisation of contract law, and indeed private law more generally, have been described in terms that apparently distance these plans from the introduction of a code civil europa. Nevertheless, the programme for developing ‘non-sector-specific measures’ into a ‘common frame of reference’ constitutes in its fundamentals and aspirations the ambition to create a European law of contract. And the method for the construction of this code replicates the process devising the great European codes of the nineteenth century: a painstaking scholarly endeavour to find consistency and coherence in the divergent national private law systems, except that no legislative process is foreseen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies , Volume 7 , 2005 , pp. 81 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge 2005

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References

1 Commission, ‘A More Coherent European Contract Law: An Action Plan’ [2003] OJ C63/1.

2 Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours [1990] OJ L158/59.

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6 Ibid, para 2.3.

7 Ibid, para 2.1.1.

8 Ibid, para 2.1.2.

9 Ibid, Annex I.

10 Collins, H, ‘The “Common Frame of Reference” for EC Contract Law: A Common Lawyer’s Perspective’ in Meli, M and Maugeri, MR (eds), L’Armonizzazione Del Diritto Privato Europeo (Milan, Guiffre, 2004) 107 Google Scholar.

11 Directive 1999/44 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the scale of consumer goods and associated guarantees [1999] OJ L171/12; Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts [1993] OJ L95/29; Council Directive 85/577/EEC of 20 December 1985 to protect the consumer in respect of contracts negotiated away from business premises [1985] OJ L372/31; Council Directive 87/102/EC of 22 December 1986 for the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning consumer credit [1987] OJ L42/48 (as amended by Council Directive 90/88/EC of 22 February 1990 [1990] OJ L61/18 and Directive 1998/7 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 [1998] OJ L101/17); Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distant contracts [1997] OJ L144/19; Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market [2000] OJ L178/1.

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13 Above n 5, para 3.1.

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24 Art II–112(1).

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29 Above n 5, para 2.2.3.1.

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