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(Conflict) Principles of European (Consumer) Contract Law – an Update

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Gralf-Peter Calliess

Extract

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In April 2003 I commented on the European Commission's Action Plan on a More Coherent European Contract Law [COM(2003) 68 final] and the Green Paper on the Modernisation of the 1980 Rome Convention [COM(2002) 654 final]. While the main argument of that paper, i.e. the common neglect of the inherent interrelation between both the further harmonisation of substantive contract law by directives or through an optional European Civil Code on the one hand and the modernisation of conflict rules for consumer contracts in Art. 5 Rome Convention on the other hand, remain pressing issues, and as the German Law Journal continues its efforts in offering timely and critical analysis on consumer law issues, there is a variety of recent developments worth noting.

Type
European & International Law
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 8 , 01 August 2004 , pp. 957 - 967
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Calliess, Gralf-Peter, Coherence and Consistency in European Consumer Contract Law: a Progress Report, 4 German L. J. No. 4 (1 April 2003), at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdf/Vol04No04/PDF_Vol_04_No_04_333-372_Private_Calliess.pdf Google Scholar

2 See Micklitz, Hans-W., The Necessity of a New Concept for the Further Development of the Consumer Law in the EU, 4 German L. J. No. 10 (1 October 2003), at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdf/Vol04No10/PDF_Vol_04_No_10_1043-1064_European_Micklitz.pdf; and Stefan Haupt, An Economic Analysis of Consumer Protection Law, 4 German L. J. No. 11 (1 November 2003), at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdf/Vol04No11/PDF_Vol_04_No_11_1137-1164_Private_Haupt.pdf; Kristin Nemeth & Helmut Ortner, The Proposal for a new Directive concerning Credit for Consumers, 4 German L. J. No. 8 (1 August 2003), at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdf/Vol04No08/PDF_Vol_04_No_08_801-813_european_Nemeth_Ortner.pdf Google Scholar

3 http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/actionplan_en.htm Google Scholar

4 See Summary of Responses, at 3.1.5, p. 8, at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/analyticaldoc_en.pdf Google Scholar

5 http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/index_en.htm, visited on 16 July 2004.Google Scholar

6 Summary of Responses, p. 2 and 8Google Scholar

7 The Lando Principles of European Contract Law have been compiled by an Expert Commission under the chairmanship of Professor Ole Lando, available at http://web.cbs.dk/departments/law/staff/ol/commission_on_ecl/ Google Scholar

8 See http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/commonframe_en.htm Google Scholar

9 See Conference Summary at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/conference_summary_en.pdf Google Scholar

10 The Architecture of European Codes & Contract Law, Conference in Vienna, 18 and 19 June 2004, programme and presentations, available at www.secola.org Google Scholar

11 http://www.sgecc.net/ Google Scholar

12 See Lorenz, , Rechtsvergleichung als Methode zur Konkretisierung der allgemeinen Grundsätze des Rechts, JZ 1962, 269; Schlesinger, Introduction to, Formation of Contracts – A Study of the Common Core of Legal Systems 1 (Vol. I, 1968); Bussani, & Mattei, , The Common Core Approach to European Private Law, 3 Colum. J. of Eur. L. 339 (1997).Google Scholar

13 http://www.acquis-group.org/ Google Scholar

14 http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/rome_i/news_summary_rome1_en.htm Google Scholar

15 The Brussels I Regulation and the Council and the Commission declaration on its Articles 15 and 73 are available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/civil/recognition/fsj_civil_recognition_general_en.htm Google Scholar

16 Directive 97/7/EC, 1997O.J. (L 144) 19.Google Scholar

17 The problems arising are described in the contribution of Amazon Europe, at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/rome_i/doc/amazon_europe_en.pdf Google Scholar

18 The German Council for PIL (Deutscher Rat für Internationales Privatrecht) e.g., simply states in a single apodictic sentence: “Art. 5 should stick to the principle of favourability.” Thanks to the fact that such contribution is available in German only, it will not influence the European discussion anyways.Google Scholar

19 MPI for Private Law Hamburg, Comment on the Green Paper, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/rome_i/doc/max_planck_institute_foreign_private_international_law_en.pdf Google Scholar

20 MPI for Private Law Hamburg, Comment on the Green Paper, 55Google Scholar

21 See Nordic Group for Private International Law, 36, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/rome_i/doc/nordic_group_private_international_law_en.pdf; see as well Stefan Leible, in: Jenaer Expertentagung, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/rome_i/doc/jenaer_expertentagung_27_28_06_2003_de.pdf Google Scholar

22 See Calliess, , supra note 1, at para. 45, 46.Google Scholar

23 COM(2002) 208 final, available with follow-ups at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/overview/cons_policy/index_en.htm Google Scholar

24 See Calliess, , The Limits of Eclecticism in Consumer Law, 3 German L. J. No. 8 (01 August 2002), at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=175 Google Scholar

25 All documents available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/index_en.htm; see as well Hugh Collins (ed.), The Forthcoming EC Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices: Contract, Consumer & Competition Law Implications, den Haag (Kluwer) 2004, comprising the proceedings of the May 2002 London Conference of SECOLA.Google Scholar

26 COM (2003) 356 final: http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/directive_prop_en.pdf Google Scholar

27 Explanatory Memorandum No. 30 indent 3, COM (2003) 356 final at p.8.Google Scholar

28 See Spindler, Gerald, Herkunftslandprinzip und Kollisionsrecht – Binnenmarktintegration ohne Harmonisierung? Die Folgen der Richtlinie im elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr für das Kollisionsrecht, RabelsZ 2002, 633-709; and Peter Mankowski, Das Herkunftslandprinzip des E-Commerce-Rechts als Internationales Privatrecht, EWS 2002, 401-410Google Scholar

29 Doc. A5-0188/2004: http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P5-TA-2004-0298+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=3&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y Google Scholar

30 http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/04/st09/st09667.en04.pdf Google Scholar

31 COM(2002) 443 final: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2002/com2002_0443en01.pdf Google Scholar

32 See Nemeth, Kristin & Ortner, Helmut, The Proposal for a new Directive concerning Credit for Consumers, 4 German L. J. No. 8 (1 August 2003): http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdf/Vol04No08/PDF_Vol_04_No_08_801-813_european_Nemeth_Ortner.pdf Google Scholar

33 COM(2002) 443 final: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2002/com2002_0443en01.pdf Google Scholar

34 PE 338.483 Doc. A5-0224/2004, available through the European Commission's Prelex and the EP OEIL systems.Google Scholar

35 Stefan Grundmann and Wolfgang Kerber, European System of Contract Laws – a Map for Combining the Advantages of Centralised and Decentralised Rule-making, in: Stefan Grundmann and Jules Stuyck (eds.), An Academic Green Paper on European Contract Law, Kluwer 2002, p. 295 ff.Google Scholar