The Contract is the core
tool of governance in a free market economy. An EU Contract Law Code is now on the
political agenda because all three legislative bodies in the EU and most member states
favour it in principle. In its communication of July 2001, the Commission proposed three
major options: to enhance the existing EC Contract Law by eliminating inconsistencies;
introducing a European Code which substitutes national laws; and introducing a European
code which only supplements national laws.
This book achieves three
things: For the first time, European academia is discussing these three options in an
extensive and systematic way with pros and cons, in a transparent and systematic way,
along broad lines and often also important details. The book contains the views of all
protagonists from all those who really drafted the models to all those who illustrated the
potential of decentralized rule-making and invented the very idea of an Optional Code.
This is the first book in which the optional Code, which is the alternative most likely to
come, is thoroughly analysed at all.
This work also contains a
full map of design possibilities. It is the executive summary of what European academia
thinks of the future of European Contract Law and a European Code. It is the Academic
Green Paper on European Contract Law.
432 pages