Full Description
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
Contents
1. The Spectre of a European Contract Law
STEFAN VOGENAUER
2. Harmonisation of European Contract Law: The State We Are In
EWAN McKENDRICK
3. English Law Reform and the Impact of European Private Law
HUGH BEALE
4. The Ideal of Codification and the Dynamics of Europeanisation: The Dutch Experience
MARTIJN W HESSELINK
5. Contract Law Reform: The German Experience
REINHARD ZIMMERMANN
6. Constitutional Issues—How Much is Best Left Unsaid?
STEPHEN WEATHERILL
7. The European Community's Competence to Pursue the Harmonisation of Contract Law—an Empirical Contribution to the Debate
STEFAN VOGENAUER & STEPHEN WEATHERILL
8. Harmonisation of and Codification in European Contract Law
GUIDO ALPA
9. Contracts and European Consumer Law: an OFT Perspective
SIR JOHN VICKERS
10. The Commission's Communications and Standard Contract Terms
ULF BERNITZ
11. Non-Legislative Harmonisation: Protection from Unfair Suretyships
AURELIA COLOMBI CIACCHI
12. Harmonisation of European Insurance Contract Law
DANIELA WEBER-REY
13. European Contract Law - What Does It Mean and What Does It Not Mean?
DIRK STAUDENMAYER
14. Harmonisation of European Contract Law—the United Kingdom Government's Thinking
BARONESS ASHTON OF UPHOLLAND
15. Concluding Observations
DAVID EDWARD
