Critical yet accessible, this book provides an overview of the current debates about the ‘Europeanization’ of contract law. Charting the extent to which English contract law has been subject to this activity, it is the ideal volume for readers unfamiliar with the subject who wish to understand the main issues quickly. It examines a range of key developments, including: a string of directives adopted by the European Union that touch on various aspects of consumer law recent plans for a European Common Frame of Reference on European Contract Law. Bringing together advanced legal scholarship, critically examining key developments in the field and considering the arguments for and against greater convergence in the area of contract law, this is an excellent read for postgraduate students studying contract and/or European law.

Tort law is often regarded as the clearest example of traditional common law reasoning. Yet, in the past 40 years, the common law of England and Wales has been subject to European influences as a result of the introduction of the European Communities Act 1972 and, more recently, the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 in October 2000. EU Directives have led to changes to the law relating to product liability, health and safety in the workplace, and defamation, while Francovich liability introduces a new tort imposing State liability for breach of EU law. The 1998 Act has led to developments in privacy law and made the courts reconsider their approach to public authority liability and freedom of expression in defamation law. This book explores how English tort law has changed as a result of Europeanisation - broadly defined as the influence of European Union and European human rights law. It also analyses how this influence has impacted on traditional common law reasoning. Has Europeanisation led to changes to the common law legal tradition or has the latter proved more resistant to change than might have been expected?

This book consists of interrelated essays by many past and present members of the EUI Law Department. The contributors are all well-known specialists in their fields,whose essays address such issues as the effects of integration upon certain national laws, the elaboration of EU law to provide a new framework for or replacement for national laws, the piece-meal development of specific legal strands of EU law and their intertwining with national or international laws, and the indirect and sometimes unintended consequences of European integration with regard to national, EU, or international law.

The emergence of a pan-European contract law is one of the most significant legal developments in Europe today. The Emergence of EU Contract Law: Exploring Europeanization examines the origins of the discipline and its subsequent evolution. It brings the discussion up-to-date with full analysis of the debate on the Common Frame of Reference and the future that this ambiguous instrument may have in the contemporary European legal framework. One of the central themes of the book is exploration of the multi-level, open architecture of the EU legal order, and the implications of that architecture for the EU's private law programme. The analysis demonstrates that the key to understanding European contract law in the 21st century lies in adopting a perspective and mechanisms suitable for a legal order populated by multiple sources of private law. Legal pluralism is offered as a theoretical construct with the capacity to shape the future of European private law, shifting the analytical spotlight beyond the traditional, centralized, legislative means of regulation. In so doing, softer mechanisms are introduced for the governance of contract law; mechanisms that enable coordination between the different sites at which contract law operates. This reorientation in thinking about European contract law, indeed about Europeanization itself, enables the inevitable diversity and pluralism that is a feature of multi-level Europe to be captured within a framework that maximizes the opportunities for mutual learning and exchange across private law sites.

The Europeanisation of European Private Law (EPL) is an ongoing process that has gained momentum with the communautarisation of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters with the Amsterdam Treaty. This work examines the governance structure of EPL. It proves that more can be achieved towards the Europeanisation of private law through a new approach involving innovative modes of governance in EPL. In order to test this hypothesis, it is necessary to look at this exercise from three different angles. The first angle provides a study about the tools and the context with which one can further Europeanise private law and bridge the gaps between the main legal families, common law and civil law. The second angle encompasses a study of what has and what has not been achieved in the development of EPL by looking at both EU and non-EU initiatives. The final angle then examines the role of governance in the future development of EPL. As such, this study confirms that the further Europeanisation of EPL requires a multi-level mode of governance, confirming the traditional supra-national Community Method mode of governance in EPL with the introduction of intra-governmental innovative methods in EPL such as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and soft-law. These innovative modes, together with the traditional mode of governance, can take forward the development of EPL so that it can better serve the needs of the European legal community in the future.

A critical overview of the Europeanisation of private law at a watershed moment, a point of punctuated equilibrium.

Written by an author team with over 60 years of teaching experience, the new edition of The Modern Law of Contract is the complete textbook for students of contract law, providing not only clear and authoritative commentary but also a selection of learning features to enable students to engage actively with the law. This, the 14th edition, has been fully updated to address recent developments in contract law, including the implications of COVID-19 and the UK’s future relationship with the EU. It offers a carefully tailored overview of all key topics for LLB and GDL courses, and includes a number of learning features designed to enhance comprehension and aid exam preparation, including: boxed chapter summaries that offer a useful checklist for students, and illustrative diagrams to clarify difficult concepts; ‘Key cases’ that highlight and contextualise the most significant cases; ‘For thought’ features that ask ‘what if’ scenarios; ‘In focus’ features that provide critical commentary on the law. Also including further reading at the end of each chapter, and a companion website with additional resources, The Modern Law of Contract enables undergraduate and postgraduate students not only to fully understand the essential details of contract law but also to develop a profound and critical understanding of this fundamental area.

EU Private Law and the CISG examines selected EU directives in the field of private law and their effects on the national private law systems of several EU Member States and discusses certain specific concepts of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in light of the CISG’s recent fortieth anniversary. The most prominent influence of EU law on national private law systems is in the area of the law of obligations, thus the book focuses on several EU private law directives that cover the issues belonging to contract and tort law, as interpreted in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. EU private law concepts need to be interpreted autonomously and uniformly rather than through the lens of national private law systems. The same is true for the CISG which has not only been one of the most successful instruments of the international trade law unification but had also influenced both the EU private law and domestic laws. In Part I, focused on the EU private law and its effects for national laws, chapters examine the recent Digital Content and Services Directive and its likely impact on the contract law of the UK and Ireland, the role aggressive commercial practices play in EU banking and credit legislation, the applicability of the EU private international law rules to collective redress, the unfair contract terms regime of the Late Payment Directive and its transposition into Croatian law, the implementation of the Commercial Agency Directive in Denmark, Estonia and Germany, and disgorgement of profits as remedy provided in the Trade Secrets Directive. In Part II, dealing with selected CISG issues, chapters discuss the autonomous interpretation of CISG’s concept of sale by auction and its notion of intellectual property, as well as the CISG’s principle of freedom of form and the possibility for reservations with the effect of its exclusion. The book will be of interest to legal scholars in the field of EU private law and international trade law, as well as to the students, practitioners, members of law reform bodies, and civil servants in Europe, and beyond.

This comparative analysis considers the differing approaches to important areas of law in England, France and Germany. In particular, constitutions, sources of law, rights against the state to prevent abuse of power, and rights of private individuals and organisations against each other in tort and contract are examined and compared, and the system of courts is also considered. Updated and revised, each sub-topic is introduced with the relevant material in the English system, allowing easy comparison and assimilation of the other systems. The text includes translations of relevant French and German codal material, and references to relevant cases from all of the jurisdictions. This new edition includes constitutional changes in France and the United Kingdom, in particular the new procedure for challenging existing legislation before the Conseil constitutionnel. It examines the consequences of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as other recent codal and legislative changes. Comprehensive and topical, the text explores a wide variety of new case law on issues such as: preventive detention; the use of evidence obtained by torture; the balance between suppression of terrorism and personal freedom; the internet; email monitoring; artificial reproductive techniques; use of global positioning systems (GPSs), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and closed-circuit television (CCTV); the wearing of religious clothing (such as the headscarf) and symbols (such as the cross); circumcision; methods of crowd control; the prevention of human trafficking; the preservation of privacy, especially for celebrities; and the legality of pre-nuptial agreements and success fees for lawyers. Designed for students on comparative law courses, this textbook will also prove valuable to students who are familiar with English law, but require a readily comprehensible introduction to French or German law.

Significantly streamlined and updated, this second edition provides a clear introduction to all topics in the contract law curriculum.