The renascence of uniform law: European contract law and its components

Abstract

The general theme of this conference - legal change and legal scholarship across Europe - reflects a growing interest of British academic lawyers in the increasing European dimension of law. Indeed, the new dynamics of the unification movement is one of the most salient features of the legal development of the recent past. It has many aspects, including EC legislation and the drafting of restatements and of general principles of law, which I will shed some light upon in the first part of my paper. I will then venture an explanation for the renascence and the new appeal of the unification movement (section II) before turning to a more specific discussion of the hamonisation of private law in Europe (section III), the significance of general principles of law for its unification (section IV), and the restatements of contract law and their role in the process of integration (section V). For the sake of clarity, I should like to premise that harmonisation and unification, although technically having different meanings, will be used interchangeably here.

Schools of Thought in European Private Law

“…As JUrgen Basedow approvingly notes: 'legal scholars transcend the traditional limits of the analysis of legal development and try to shape the future European law themselves'. 121 Here, we have gone further by trying to imagine the form that EU private law scholarship should assume while benefiting from the freedom resulting from the collapse of the integration paradigm depicted above. In particular, we are in favour of directing the study of private law away from legal positivism and towards methodology, away from legal rules and towards principles and shared values.…”

¿Supone el Derecho uniforme una amenaza frente al Derecho interno? ¿Podríamos hablar de una guerra anunciada?

“…En muchos casos, la interrelación y la aplicación de un Derecho uniforme en un ordenamiento jurídico interno puede tomar diferentes cauces 36 , y ello es así porque la elección del mismo se suele dejar en manos de los políticos, de quienes dependerán los parámetros que suelen influir en la mayoría de las organizaciones internacionales que abordan la materia. Es por esto que se debe tener en cuenta el nivel de desarrollo económico de las naciones, sus preferencias axiológicas, así como sus aspiraciones sociales 37 .…”

The European Brotherhood of Lawyers: The Reinvention of Legal Science in the Making of European Private Law

“…European private lawyers sometimes react with irritation to these objections. Basedow speaks of “the strange ideology shared by so many lawyers all over the world that law is deeply rooted in the culture of each nation and as such unfit for international uniformity” (Basedow 1998, 127). Lando objects that “contract law is not folklore; it is a question of ethics, economics and technique” (Lando 2000, 826).…”

“…There is a long and proud European history of legal scientists elevating themselves to the lofty heights of lawgiving and nation‐building—a history that has been repeating itself in the process of European legal integration in general and is doing so with particular clarity in the current debates over the harmonization of European private law. As Jürgen Basedow notes approvingly, “legal scholars transcend the traditional limits of the analysis of legal development and try to shape the future European law themselves” (Basedow 1998, 125). This is not, however, the legal science of building conceptual heavens accessible only to those who drink themselves into forgetfulness of terrestrial human affairs (Cohen 1935).…”