Institutional competition of optional codes in European contract law

The Common European Sales Law (CESL) is the European Commission’s most recent policy initiative for European contract law. It aims to address the problem that differences between the national contract laws of the Member States may constitute an obstacle for the European Internal Market. This paper develops a model of the institutional competition in European contract law and uses it to addresses the question as to whether an optional European contract code and the CESL are economically desirable for European contract law. To do so I examine the transaction costs involved in the process of choosing an applicable law that European businesses face when they conduct cross-border transactions in the European Internal Market. I then describe how these transaction costs shape the competitive environment, i.e. what I refer to as the “European market for contract laws” in which the contracting parties choose a law to govern their cross-border contracts. Having identified this environment and the competitive forces operating within it, I propose a model, the “Cycle of European Contract Law”. I use this model to analyze the competitive processes that take place in the European market for contract laws. Based on my results I make recommendations for the optimal implementation of an optional European contract code and the CESL in European contract law.     

The Optional European Code on the Basis of the Acquis Communautaire—Starting Point and Trends

Abstract:  The idea of creating a European Code for contract law, though recent, has gathered pace. Although most work towards this goal has so far assumed that the principles should be constructed through critical comparative law studies of the existing contract laws of Member States, it is argued here that the acquis communautaire provides a modern and democratically endorsed collection of principles, which can be quite well systematised, that should provide the starting-point for scholarly endeavours towards the construction of a code of contract law.     

The Ideal of Codification and the Dynamics of Europeanisation: The Dutch Experience

Abstract:  In response to the growing incoherence of European contract law, the Commission is planning to adopt a 'common frame of reference' (CFR) in 2009. That CFR will effectively constitute a codification in a substantive sense. As a result, in codified systems such as The Netherlands, there will be a shift from the familiar tension between impressionistic harmonisation and systematic codification to a new tension between the system of the national civil code and the system of the substantive European code. Therefore, once the CFR is adopted by the Commission as a tool for revising the acquis and for drafting new directives, national legislators inspired by the codification ideal will have to reconsider their strategies towards the implementation of directives in the area of private law. Three such strategies are considered here: resistance, segregation and surrender. Each of them has advantages, but also disadvantages. None of them solve the tension between national codification and Europeanisation. It seems unlikely that private law will ever (again) be contained exclusively in one comprehensive code, either on the national or on the European level. The CFR will make a comprehensive national codification increasingly difficult to achieve, whereas a comprehensive European Civil Code that replaces national private law both lacks a legal basis and political support. Therefore, we will have to live with a two- (or multi-) level system of private law. As a result, the Dutch and other national legislators will have to revise their codification ideals.     

A Toolbox for European Judges

The forthcoming instrument on European contract law, be it in the shape of an optional code for cross‐border contracts or as an official toolbox for the European legislator, is likely to have a spill‐over effect on private law adjudication in Europe. Judges will have no great difficulty in finding model rules and definitions that might come in handy when dealing with gaps and ambiguities in European private law. However, the question is whether such a role as a toolbox for judges would be legitimate. I discuss three types of possible legitimation strategies: traditional methods of legal interpretation, the new European methods and merely political legitimation. It will often depend on the circumstances of the case at hand and the characteristics of the particular model rule or definition that is being borrowed what mode of legitimation will prove to be more convincing. However, generally speaking legitimation in terms of the ‘general principles of civil law’ that the CJEU has recently been developing seems a particularly promising strategy. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that European courts could come under a duty, following from the principle of sincere cooperation, to use the instrument as a toolbox.     

Why Do Labour Lawyers Ignore the Question of Social Justice in European Contract Law?

Abstract: Over recent years, a heated debate about social justice in European contract law has been taking place. Great emphasis is placed on ideological assumptions. For example, the over‐individualistic interpretation of European private law, its market‐led orientation and the insufficient attention paid to the idea of the protection of the weaker party. This discussion considers the traditional conflict between the meta‐principles of market‐oriented efficiency and solidarity‐based action. The whole debate, it seems to me, now calls for a more rules‐based approach. In endeavouring to validate such an approach, this article starts by illustrating the various facets connected to the theme of ‘European contract law’. Then as a preliminary step, I shall briefly examine the question as to why labour lawyers have remained silent and take no part in the discussion on European social contract law. There is ample reason to believe that the contrary is necessary. It has been generally acknowledged that labour contracts are not outside private law—individual contract law in particular—and that it represents one of the most important examples of long term incomplete contracts. The idea of labour law as autonomous is dead and it appears simple to promote the reintegration of labour law into modern social contract law. In the context of the debate on European contract law, three different strategies can be envisaged to achieve this end. The first strategy tests the degree to which provisions under the contractual regime, not all of which are legally binding, effectively meet the needs of the weaker party in the contractual relationship, in terms of his/her security—what might for short be termed the social validity of the contract regime—(the Principles of European Contract Law, the EU rules affecting contract law, etc which are analysed and proposed in the various workshops that are currently examining them), from the specific point of view of labour law. A second strategy is to codify European or Community labour law. Lastly, another strategy is to introduce an intermediate category of long‐term social contracts. What makes this last trend particularly significant for the future is that today globalisation is progressively diminishing the income earned from labour contracts and in this sense creating insecurity. In a globalised economy, where levels of remuneration are lower than in the past, the individual's sense of security must be ensured also in the context of other social or long‐term contracts (outside the workplace), which enable people to obtain other sources of finance (such as consumer credit, for example), or to make arrangements necessary for living (such as tenancy contracts). A need exists for consumers to be granted similar rights to those which historically have been granted to workers. To take just one example: if the borrower under a consumer credit agreement loses his/her job for objective reasons, or falls ill and is therefore temporarily unable to pay the instalments under the agreement, why should there not be a mechanism which limits the credit‐providing institution from terminating the credit arrangement?     

Towards a European Law of Contracts

Abstract: European contract law has recently been the subject of increasing attention and intense debate. In addressing this issue, the following contribution departs from traditional analyses of the necessity, feasibility, and opportunity to harmonise national legislation on contractual relations. Instead, the author seeks to demonstrate that, with the objective of promoting the internal market and developing trade within it, EC authorities have long since given birth to a genuine European contract law. Beginning with the analysis of a body of EC directives, this article argues that the genuine nature of this law can be ascertained despite its limits or rather by taking these limits into account. The important rights granted to different contracting parties (consumer‐purchaser, consumer‐tourist, and certain professionals) stand in contrast to the formal incoherence and fragmented character of the legal texts. The article concludes that, in analysing the notion of European contact law, it is necessary to adapt a functional approach rather than a formal one, because the functional approach has dominated European integration and the European law of contracts since its inception.     

The political morality of convergence in contract

One of the most interesting recent developments in contract law has been an academic and political effort to integrate private law. The proposed Common European Sales Law was ultimately withdrawn, and a series of setbacks, including the British referendum to exit the EU, has recast the politics of convergence. But it remains an objective for many European scholars. This essay considers the wisdom of convergence on a single law of transactions from the perspective of philosophical contract theory. The essay proceeds by disaggregating the rights at stake in contract law. It characterises the formal right to contract and describes its moral impetus as one that should underwrite contract law in all states, especially liberal states. But the essay argues that the legitimate contours of the formal right are contingent on tenets of political culture that vary across Member States. Similarly, substantive regulation of contract is morally compulsory and serves universal interests; the essay takes regulation of permissible work and remuneration for work as examples. But the rules and standards that best advance those moral interests depend on economic facts specific to individual political communities. The essay concludes by arguing that contract law is a poor tool by which to accelerate political and economic convergence.     

Towards a European Code Napoléon/ABGB/BGB? Recent EC Activities for a European Contract Law

Abstract:  Contract law issues on European or international level have been studied for several decades in academic circles. Contract law issues and other questions affecting European private law have already been regulated in the past on EC level, especially in the framework of several consumer protection directives. The European Contract Law project initiated by the European Commission received new impetus with the Commission's Green Paper of 2004. Emphasis is laid on developing a 'common frame of reference' (CFR) which shall be ready by 2009. A so-called 'optional instrument' and standard terms of contract are also looked at. The article explains the reasons behind these activities, describes the work currently under way, and points to a series of open questions of a legal or political nature.     

价值与制度的贯通:现代民法文化研究纲要——兼论我国民法典的制定

民法价值和制度之间需要民法文化来贯通.现代民法文化既要实现个人自由又要实现社会正义的价值,而这两种价值的变迁都可以在人格、所有权和契约制度中得以体现.在我国当前的民法制度建构过程中,我们一方面要培养民法文化的成长,另一方面应该用现代民法文化的精神来指导民法典的制定,因为民法典是目前构筑现代民法文化的一种重要方式.     

我国台湾地区民法承揽人抵押权之修改——兼评祖国大陆《合同法》第286条和有关司法解释

承揽人的抵押权是否应该进行登记是一个重要的实践问题,对承揽合同的双方当事人以及第三人的利益影响甚大,需要妥善处理。本文分析了我国台湾地区民法对承揽人抵押权修改的原因与经过,并以此为参照,分析了祖国大陆《合同法》第286条的规定,认为祖国大陆《合同法》第286条和《法释〔2002〕16号批复》存在缺陷,需要进行改进。     

契约中的主观主义与客观主义研究

契约中的客观主义与主观主义始终贯彻契约法的发展史,在不同的历史阶段,两者的地位并不相同,它们更多的从属于政治、经济等要求。两者不是相互排斥而是相互融合的关系。主要的民法典文本或契约法文本没有任何一个完全贯彻客观主义或主观主义。我国未来民法典也没有必要在两极之中选择一个,而是应当将两者结合起来。     

A European Legal Method? On European Private Law and Scientific Method

This article examines the relationship between European private law and scientific method. It argues that a European legal method is a good idea. Not primarily because it will make European private law scholarship look more scientific, but because a debate on the method of a normative science necessarily has to be a debate on its normative assumptions. In other words, a debate on a European legal method will have much in common with the much desired debate on social justice in European law. Moreover, it submits that, at least after the adoption of the Common Frame of Reference by the European institutions, European contract law can be regarded as a developing multi-level system that can be studied from the inside. Finally, it concludes that the Europeanisation of private law is gradually blurring the dividing line between the internal and external perspectives, with their respective appropriate methods, in two mutually reinforcing ways. First, in the developing multi-level system it is unclear where the external borders of the system lie, in particular the borders between Community law and national law. Second, because of the less formal legal culture the (formerly) external perspectives, such as the economic perspective, have easier access and play an increasing role as policy considerations.     

两岸关于旅游合同最新立法例的比较研究——以祖国大陆《旅游法》的制定为中心

以祖国大陆《旅游法》的制定与实施为标志,旅游合同于祖国大陆终于实现了规范化。而将其与1999年我国台湾地区"民法"新增有关旅游合同之法规则进行对比,可发现二者在总的立法体例、主要规制的内容上有很大的相似性,但在缔约双方一些具体权利义务的分配上仍有差异。如祖国大陆《旅游法》所规定的旅行社告知义务内容的明文化、因旅游者原因所产生合同解除权的列举式立法、旅游合同违约无过错责任原则的缓和、惩罚性损害赔偿的引入;我国台湾地区"民法"债编规定的旅行社对旅游者购物瑕疵之协助及处理义务。而这些细微的差别也为两岸旅游合同法的相互借鉴与改进预留了空间。     

欧盟私法法典化与我国民法典的制订

随着欧盟一体化进程的加快,客观上要求欧盟在私法领域制定一部内部协调统一、具有宏观性、体系性的民法典,经过法学家的理论准备,欧盟官方对学术研究的响应和对私法发展方向的正确选择,最终促使《共同参考框架（草案）》（DCFR）的完成。欧盟私法法典化进程中,虽然具有浓厚的工具色彩,但融合了不同的法律文化与传统,体现出了现代私法的最新理念与精神。欧盟私法法典化在法典的制定、法典的精神以及法典的结构、内容、统一性方面,无疑对我国民法典的制定具有很大的借鉴意义。     

论欧盟区域内的强制性规则

由于欧盟尚无统一的欧洲合同法,各成员国合同法中的强制性条款的差异成为欧洲共同市场一体化进程的阻碍之一,因此研究欧盟区域内冲突法意义上的强制性规则十分必要。基于现在欧盟无冲突法意义上关于强制性规则的立法,笔者试图依据欧盟成员国缔结并适用的罗马公约从冲突法的角度解释不同类型的强制性规则,分析它们的不同之处,并比较具代表性的欧盟成员国的强制性规则,同时讨论欧盟这一层面的现行规定及发展。     

The Impact of European Integration on Private Law: Reductionist Perceptions, True Conflicts and a New Constitutional Perspective

If private law is defined simply as a matter of core areas such as substantive contract, torts, property or family law, it may be doubted whether European law has significantly affected national private law systems; or conversely, whether national private law is relevant to European integration. However, this paper argues that such conclusions are misleading: while there have been very few European interventions into the core areas of civil codes or the common law, the integration process has impacted forcefully upon deeper structures of national legal systems. Challenging the institutional embeddedness of national private law, European primary and regulatory law has remodelled (public) concepts of private autonomy, the realm of private governance and the social responsibility of private actors. How then to present and evaluate this indirect impact? Drawing upon concrete examples, this paper seeks first to understand this European challenge to the interdependence of national private law, borrowing from political science's analytical tool of multi-level governance to highlight the complex interrelations between European rights and regulatory law and national private law; and secondly attempts actively to assess the legitimacy of the impact of integration upon private law with the aid of the explicitly normative theory of deliberative supranationalism. However, precisely because Europe remains in a state of flux, and dependent upon contingent political processes, no final conclusions are drawn: as is the case with so many areas subject to integrationist logic, the contours of the ‘new European private law’ cannot be laid down in advance, and are instead a long and weary matter of cooperation and fine-tuning between national and European judiciaries.     

Alive and well: the good faith principle in Turkish contract law

Good faith is a principle prominent in civil law countries but less so in common law countries, and which allows courts to deviate from black letter law. It provides them with flexibility to change the outcome of a deductive legal decision if they regard it as absurd. The principle of good faith thus empowers the judiciary to deviate. It can be used for an indefinite number of cases and might lead to almost all conceivable legal consequences. For instance, the judge can invalidate the contract, change the price, suspend or change a clause in the contract, or grant injunctive relief, compensation of damages, the disgorgement of profits or a removal claim. We argue that if the principle of good faith is used to develop contract law into an instrument for redistributing wealth in favor of poor parties, this can destroy the concept of contract as a social mechanism for generating mutual gains for parties, which might lead to unwanted economic consequences in terms of efficiency losses. We argue that the principle of good faith must be carefully and reluctantly used to reconstruct the fully specified contract and that well-informed judges, who understand the factual environment of a contract well should ask how fair bur self-interested parties would have allocated the risk in a pre-contractual situation. If the courts restrict the application of the good faith principle to these functions, this provides elasticity that otherwise would not exist if courts would strictly use the rules laid down in black letter law. Moreover, it saves transactions costs and is therefore in line with economic reasoning. We look at the most important Turkish cases and find that the Turkish Supreme Court following Continental European doctrines of good faith actually uses this principle to curb opportunistic behavior of parties and not to achieve redistribution from the rich to the poor by way of interfering into contract law.     

浅析刑事和解理念对辩诉交易制度的启示——以被害人为视角

辩诉交易制度与刑事和解制度是欧美刑事案件中适用的两类重要的司法制度。两种制度有其相似的地方,也有诸多的不同。其中一点便是刑事诉讼的被害人在两种制度中的地位和作用有着较大的差别。而两者的共同基础———社会契约理论和私法中契约自由的观念,以及辩诉交易制度在实际运作过程中可能出现的问题使得辩诉交易借鉴刑事和解的理念,加强被害人的地位和作用成为可能和必要。     

我国合同拘束力理论的重构

围绕合同债权的拘束力问题，存在着债权-债务构成与合同构成两种不同的理论模式。我国合同法在总体上选择了合同构成。但由于理论上的准备不足，无论立法者还是解释者都没有清晰地意识到上述两种构成的存在和意义，而是误用了早已扭曲变形的严格责任体系和过错责任体系作为理论工具，导致合同法在立法和解释上都夹杂了很多债权-债务构成的成分，不仅造成了严重的体系矛盾，而且在一定范围内引发了法律效果的偏差。这些矛盾和偏差需要通过用纯粹的合同构成对现行的合同拘束力理论进行重构方能化解和矫正。     

利他合同的基本理论问题

基于“不得为他人缔约”的规则,罗马法上不承认利他合同。欧洲共同法时期受自然法学思想的影响,承认了利他合同,但以第三人的接受作为前提。因为其在实践上的缺陷,这一理论逐渐为新理论所取代,直接承认合同可以对第三人产生效力。建立中国法上的利他合同制度,不宜通过对合同法第64条的解释来实现,而应在完整借鉴大陆法系利他合同理论的基础上,在未来民法典中通过立法的方式来实现。