The law applicable to cross-border contracts and the future of European contract law

2009 ◽  
pp. 405-502
Author(s):  
Thomas Kadner Graziano
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Law ◽  
European Contract Law

‘Fraud’ and ‘Misleading Commercial Practices’: Modernising the Law of Defects in Consent

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Paolo Patti
Keyword(s):  
Law And Economics ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Law ◽  
Civil Codes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Market Strategies ◽  
European Contract Law

AbstractThe rules provided by the civil codes on defects in consent were designed at a time when the notion of consumer law did not exist and fairness at the pre-contractual stage was not widely considered as a value worthy of protection. Matters have changed radically in the last three decades. The proliferation of rules protecting consumers on a European level, especially through information duties and rights of withdrawal, and the growing impact of general clauses, has led to a fragmentation of domestic contract law. This clash of different sets of rules is particularly conspicuous in the field of unfair commercial practices as the European legislator has not made provision for specific private law remedies for individual consumers in cases of misleading and aggressive commercial practices. This article addresses the particular issue of the applicability of the law of fraudulent misrepresentation to cases of misleading commercial practices. The purpose is to reconsider ‘fraud’ in terms of a defect in consent, in a manner that is both more in line with the modern features of European contract law and better able to counteract new market strategies based on exploiting cognitive weaknesses. The focus is thus put on the relationship between pre-contractual information duties and defective consent, as well as on some insights of law and economics, which demonstrate that ‘consent theories’ or ‘will theories’ cannot provide precise criteria to indicate when a contract should be void. In conclusion, a possible legislative intervention aiming to substitute the rules on fraud for a set of remedies for violation of information duties is discussed.

scholarly journals The Revision of the Rome Convention of 1980 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations–A Crucial Role within the European Contract Law Project?

2003 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-367
Author(s):  
Ana López-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Green Paper ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Rome Convention ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
European Contract Law

AbstractThis article deals with some of the issues addressed in the Action Plan on a more coherent European contract law, COM (2003) 68 final, in connection with the Green Paper of the European Commission of 14 January 2003, COM (2003) 654 final, on the conversion of the Rome Convention of 1980 on the law applicable to contractual obligations into a Community instrument and its modernization. It argues ways in which both initiatives may complement each other towards a smoother functioning of the internal market.

scholarly journals The Continued Resonance and Challenge of the “Ius Commune” in Modern European Contract Law

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-418
Author(s):  
Martin J. Doris
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Legal Information ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Ius Commune ◽  
European Contract Law

The need for a more consistent and coherent European contract law is a current priority of the EC institutions. Despite decades of pointillistic legal harmonization, cross border transactions within the Internal market of the European Union continue to take place in the shadow of divergent procedural and substantive law rules, differing legal cultures and significant linguistic diversities. Whilst national contract law systems function more or less efficiently internally, it is their partial non-compatibility with other Member States’ private laws that provokes isolated distortions on the market. As a consequence, the European Commission has presented its ‘Common Frame of Reference’ research strategy aimed at fostering common contract law principles, model rules and uniform legal terminology, which, it is believed, will better facilitate commercial actors. The European Parliament has moved a step further by lending institutional credibility to the case for a European civil code. However, this clamour for codification of private laws – an idea premised on two formalisms, legal and economic – has in many respects overlooked the mechanics of modern commercial contracting in particular, the importance of contract drafting and the complex negotiations that lead to deals both domestically and cross border. This paper therefore provides an alternative assessment of the development of a Europeanius commune,or ‘common law’ of contract, and considers the urgency of improved means of legal information exchange in order to better facilitate the ongoing harmonization effort.

Choice of Law in b2b Contracts: the Law of the Jungle

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobien Rutgers
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Regulatory Competition ◽  
Future Research ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Choice Of Law ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
The Law ◽  
Business Sectors ◽  
European Contract Law

Abstract Is the law of the jungle the guiding principle with respect to choice of law clauses in international contracts between businesses (b2b contract)? Does a choice of law imply the rule of the strongest party? These and other questions are discussed in the light of 18 exploratory qualitative interviews with Dutch senior practising lawyers (advocaten). Lawyers were interviewed, since it is often presumed that they play an important role with respect to a choice of law in the pre-contractual phase. However, the perception of lawyers with respect to a choice of law is underresearched. The interview findings are discussed and compared to the data concerning a choice of law in the context of the debates about a common European contract law, regulatory competition, self-enforcing contracts and the legal origin theory. Finally, questions for future research are formulated. For instance, in the empirical research conducted sofar, no specific attention has been paid to small and medium sized businesses. Had they been considered, the outcome could have been different. The same may be said with respect to the different business sectors and the countries where the companies are established.

scholarly journals THE NEW FRENCH LAW OF CONTRACT

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 805-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solène Rowan
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Civil Code ◽  
French Law ◽  
European Contract ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
European Contract Law

AbstractThe article analyses the recent reform of contract law in France. The section of the Civil Code on the law of contract was amended and restructured in its entirety last year. The revised section came into force on 1 October 2016. The article considers its main innovations and compares them with the corresponding principles of English law and some contract law international instruments, mainly the UNIDROIT Principles and the Principles of European Contract Law. The article also assesses whether the new provisions achieve their stated aim of rendering French contract law more accessible, predictable, influential abroad and commercially attractive.

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