The need for a European contract law. Empirical and legal perspectives

Abstract:

This book aims to illustrate the extent to which there is a need for uniform contract law in view of the economic interests of the European Union. It not only addresses the question from a legal standpoint but also considers economics and psychology aspects.

The work is organised over seven chapters. The first examines the costs and benefits of both the diverse approach and the uniform approach, concluding in favour of the adoption of an optional contract code allowing both parties to choose a neutral system. Chapter two explores the economic argument in favour of harmonisation and weighs both the enormous costs of harmonisation and those arising from the legal uncertainty of diverse systems. Chapter three openly announces a sceptical viewpoint and seriously questions the validity of and economic analysis of costs and benefits of unification. Chapter four applies a relatively new discipline based on behavioural law and economics, arguing against enforced unification in favour of a spontaneous bottom-up process of unification. The fifth chapter argues that the unification process presents an opportunity for refining laws and considers three different reasons for diversity of law: variations in cultural values, differential political power and differential cognitive error. Chapter six considers the potential for constraining evolution of the law presented by the prospect of unification bringing with it a rigid prospect of codification which fails to reflect the changing needs of present-day society. The final chapter from the editor draws together the arguments of the earlier contributions and endorses the view that a slowly, slowly and step-by-step approach may be the best route to unification.

The work will interest scholars, students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners engaged in European contract law and European integration.

Jan Smits is Professor of European Private Law at the Universiteit Maastricht.