| Aberdeen meeting on DCFREric Clive 07 February 2010 19:46 The Scottish Association of Comparative Law and Aberdeen University Law School held a session on the DCFR in Aberdeen on Friday. The session was organised by David Carey-Miller and Leone Niglia and opened by Margaret Ross, the head of school. It was attended by participants from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Lord Goldsmith’s evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry provides food for thought on the proper role of subsequent conduct in the interpretation process. As in the case of prior negotiations there is here a dividing line between United Kingdom law and general European private law and international commercial law. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Having listened on several occasions to distinguished English and Scottish judges trying desperately to explain why negotiations cannot be looked at for the purposes of interpreting contracts I found it fascinating to hear another distinguished lawyer, Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney-General, trying desperately to explain to the Iraq Inquiry today why the negotiations leading up to a UN Security Council Resolution had to be looked at in order to interpret that Resolution. Read more...Comments (0) |
| At the hearings of commissioners designate before the European Parliament on 12 January, Mrs Viviane Reding, the Commissioner Designate for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, gave a most impressive performance. Read more...Comments (0) |
| A warm welcome to Viviane Reding, the EU’s new Commissioner Designate for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship. This is a new post, reflecting the fact that the justice dossier is now to be split from home affairs. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Rome I Regulation in forceEric Clive 17 December 2009 16:28 The Rome I Regulation comes into force today, 17 December 2009. It determines which law applies to contracts having connections with more than one country. It is of both direct and indirect significance for European private law. Read more...Comments (2) |
| I have just been reading the most interesting paper by Steven Walker on the Renaissance of Scottish International Arbitration to which Scott Wortley kindly provided this link in the ECCL blog. The Arbitration (Scotland) Bill 2009 (which has passed all its stages in the Scottish Parliament and is now awaiting Royal Assent) is a big step forward from the procedural point of view, but more could still be done. Read more...Comments (2) |
| In a wide-ranging Resolution, dated 25 November 2009 (P7_TA-PROV(2009)0090), on the Stockholm programme the European Parliament called for action on many legal fronts, including private international law, succession law, criminal law and matrimonial property law. In relation to contract law, the Parliament strongly advocated the immediate use of the DCFR and the development of an optional instrument. Read more...Comments (0) |
| In the last entry on this topic I mentioned that there was a strong commitment in the founding group to trying to ensure that the Institute was not seen as a sort of continuation of the Study Group on a European Civil Code. In that respect it was to be open and all embracing. Discussions were continuing as to how best to make this clear. A new draft “constitution” has now been prepared within the shadow board. Read more...Comments (0) |
| In a recent judgment the Swedish Supreme Court made express reference to the DCFR, thus being the first European supreme court to do so. The unanimous judgment was delivered on 3 November (case nr. T 3-08, 3 November 2009). Read more...Comments (0) |
| What is the significance of the bank charges case (Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National plc [2009] UKSC 6) for European private law? There are several points and on all of them the decision is very welcome. Read more...Comments (2) |
| Professor Stefan Vogenauer of the University of Oxford spoke at the Stockholm conference on the theme “CFR and UNIDROIT principles of international commercial contracts: coexistence, competition or overkill of soft law?” The answer to the question across the whole range of contracts must surely be coexistence. The instruments are designed to serve different purposes. Professor Vogenauer’s view was, however, that for an optional instrument for commercial contracts there was no need for a CFR in addition to the Unidroit Principles. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The DCFR and the CISGEric Clive 24 November 2009 13:21 In a clear, cogent and beautifully delivered speech to the Stockholm conference Professor Ingeborg Schwenzer of the University of Basel addressed the topic “Drafting new model rules on sales: CFR as an alternative to the CISG?” The speech was an impressive one which made many good points and provided much food for thought. Read more...Comments (0) |
| What is the relationship between a European Common Frame of Reference and other global or European private law instruments? We have CISG, PICC, PECL, ACQP and now DCFR and, eventually, CFR. Is it all getting excessive? Read more...Comments (0) |
| The first step is for the UK and the tiny number of other EU countries which have not yet ratified the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) to ratify it. This was the frank and sensible advice of Professor Johnny Herre, Stockholm School of Economics, in his talk to the Stockholm conference. Read more...Comments (0) |
| This was the title of an interesting contribution to the Stockholm conference by Paul Abbiatti, Legal Consultant, Member of the International Chamber of Commerce. His answer in two words was “Maybe yes”. Read more...Comments (2) |
| The first professor to express a view on the DCFR at the Stockholm conference was Jan Kleineman of the University of Stockholm, who was moderator of the first full session. He criticised the drafting of the model rules as being too difficult and complicated. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Klaus-Heiner Lehne, the Chair of the Committee of Legal Affairs and Chair of the Conference of Committee Chairs of the European Parliament is a vigorous and impressive politician. There is a recent profile of him at http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/strategic-thinker/66336.aspx. And he gave a vigorous and impressive speech at the Stockholm conference on the CFR. Read more...Comments (0) |
| At the Stockholm conference on the Common Frame of Reference for European Contract Law (the CFR) there were contributions from representatives of the Swedish, French, Czech and Spanish Ministries of Justice, from the European Commission and from the European Parliament. Together they give a good idea of official thinking on the CFR. Read more...Comments (0) |
| In previous posts we noted how the English and Scottish Law Commissions were critical of European Commission proposals to confine consumers' remedies to those of repair and/or replacement in a new Consumer Rights Directive, and not to allow Member States to go further, thus entailing the loss of the consumer buyer's right to reject unsatisfactory goods in the United Kingdom. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Towards a European Law InstituteEric Clive 04 November 2009 10:42 At a meeting held at the rather impressive Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law on 23 and 24 October further progress was made towards the formation of an unofficial pan-European body of law faculties, research centres, individual legal scholars and others with an interest in research into, and the development of, European public and private law. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The conference organised by the Swedish Presidency of the EU in Stockholm from 22nd to 23rd October was a great success. The main point was “to discuss the future of the common frame of reference focussing on the political way forward”. The conference was well-attended (Ministries of Justice from throughout the EU being particularly well-represented) and extremely well organised. The important message to emerge is that work on a “political” common frame of reference (CFR) will go ahead. Read more...Comments (0) |
| DCFR publishedHector MacQueen 16 October 2009 10:13 The six volumes of the DCFR have been published on 16 October 2009 by Sellier, a week ahead of schedule, and also before the inter-governmental conference on the subject to be held in Stockholm 22-23 October. Read more...Comments (0) |
| At least five of the six volumes of the Draft Common Frame of Reference have been spotted and photographed in an office in Osnabruck, Germany. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The Acquis Group welcomes the objective of the the EU Commission’s proposal for a Directive on consumer rights (the so-called horizontal Directive) – a significant and much-needed move towards a more coherent European private law – but is highly critical of the actual content and drafting. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The action moves to ScandinaviaEric Clive 24 September 2009 14:25 There is to be a conference at Aarhus on the Unification and Harmonization of International Commercial Law on 19th and 20th Cctober 2009. See http://www.asb.dk/article.aspx?pid=21229. The questions suggested for discussion by the speakers include the preferred methods of harmonisation or unification and whether there might be unintended consequences of some of the efforts currently underway – such as conflicts between different instruments or methods. Read more... |
| Two mighty tomes dropped onto the European Private Law News desk over the summer, and seem worth drawing to readers' attention. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Today is the last day for submissions to the Scottish Law Commission relating to their Eighth Programme of Law Reform. Submissions can be uploaded online here: http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/html/eighth_programme.php. Here you will find details of the issues carried over from the Seventh programme. You will also find a note of the projects which have been suggested to the SLC, and you will be able to comment on these. Readers of this blog may be interested in the comment below which I posted today (although the posts do not appear immediately on the site). Readers of this blog are urged to make their own posting - I'm sure those at the Commission would be grateful for a flurry of last minute posts! : Read more...Comments (0) |
| Our colleague Andrew Steven informs us of an interesting development in Salzburg, Austria, during the annual European Private Law Summer School there, now in its tenth year. Read more...Comments (0) |
| In the previous post I promised some comment on the substantive "issues" the House of Lords Committee's Report of June 2009 said it had with the DCFR. As suggested in that post, some of these appear to address the 2008 interim version rather than the final 2009 one. As a result, the Report is seriously mistaken on some key points. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The House of Lords European Union Committee published a largely critical report on the DCFR on 10 June 2009. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The European Court of Justice held on 4 June 2009 that national courts must of their own motion apply the controls of the Unfair Terms Directive to contracts before it, not wait for the parties to ask them to examine the clause in question. Read more...Comments (0) |
| In a previous post we noted an apparent conflict building up between the European Commission and the UK Law Commissions over the buyer's right to reject faulty goods supplied under a contract of sale. Read more...Comments (0) |
| On 12 May Lord Hoffmann gave a brilliant talk in the Law School on the case of the Achilleas (Transfield Shipping Co Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc [2008] UKHL 48). In that case the House of Lords recast the English law on damages for breach of contract. The purpose of this note is to ask how such a case might have been decided under the model rules of European private law in the Draft Common Frame of Reference (the DCFR). Read more...Comments (0) |
| In preparing a new edition of my introductory text on unjustified enrichment and trying to make use of the DCFR for definitions and filling gaps in our law (as with PECL in MacQueen & Thomson on Contract and McBryde on Contract), I came across a problem that may be a gap in the DCFR and certainly shows the need for continuing work on the text. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Last February Eric Clive noted a meeting in Amsterdam to discuss the formation of a European Legal Research Association; the follow-up meeting mentioned there took place in sunny Prague on 1-2 May 2009. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The uncorrected minutes of evidence on the Draft Common Frame of Reference taken before Sub-Committee E of the House of Lords’ EU Committee on 25 March 2009 are available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/lduncorr/eue250309ev3.pdf. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Actually, it already has been conjured with - and the person behind it has conjured up an excellent article on "Should Scots Property Law Be Codified?" which appears in the first issue of the Edinburgh Student Law Review vol 1 (2009) at pp 1 - 18. See http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/eslr/files/eslr.pdf. Read more...Comments (0) |
| DCFR on i-phoneEric Clive 21 April 2009 10:34 Not being a gadget freak, this is not something I will be using myself, but I am informed that you can download the "Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law - DCFR" to your i-phone as an e-book application - and for free in the next few weeks. The link is <http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312380786
&mt=8>. Read more...Comments (0) |
| DCFR's farewell to Windscheid?Hector MacQueen 09 April 2009 08:37 "Farewell to Windscheid? Legal Concepts Present and Absent from the Draft CFR" is the title of a new article on the DCFR by Antoni Vaquer of the University of Lleida in Catalonia. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Jonathan Faull, Director-General, Justice, Freedom and Security, European Commission gave evidence by video link to Sub-Committee E of the House of Lords’ EU Committee this afternoon. These are some of the key points (not necessarily in the order in which they were made) from the first part of his evidence - before technical problems cut off my link. Read more...Comments (0) |
| On 25th March, Sub-Committee E of the House of Lords’ European Union Committee (Chairman, Lord Mance) will be taking oral evidence on the Common Frame of Reference (CFR) from Jonathan Faull, Director General, Justice, Freedom and Security at the EU Commission. I hope that the Sub-Committee will take the opportunity to ask how the Commission sees the relationship between the CFR and the new proposal for a Consumer Rights Directive. Read more... |
| I have just seen an advert for a new book edited by Hans Micklitz and Fabrizio Cafaggi on “After the Common Frame of Reference”. The blurb refers to the DCFR as “very much a backwards looking 19th century codification project”. Read more... |
| In Laura's last blog she asks about Article III.-3:302(3)(b) of the DCFR. That Article deals with the right to enforce performance of a non-monetary obligation and the specific sub-paragraph contains an exception for the case where "performance would be unreasonably burdensome or expensive". The question is whether that involves any sort of proportionality test - comparing the burden on the debtor in the obligation with the benefit to the creditor. Read more... |
| This morning, the LLM Class (Contract Law in Europe) were discussing the enforcement of performance both under the DCFR and under various national legal systems. One point emerged from the discussions, which perhaps Professor Clive can clarify for us. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Compensable or compensatable?Eric Clive 10 March 2009 14:47 Editing is a dull job but occasionally the relentless chipping produces a tiny spark of interest. The spark last week was the question whether the national notes in the full version of the Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law (the DCFR) should use “compensable” or “compensatable” to describe a type of harm or condition for which compensation could be obtained. Read more...Comments (0) |
| A report prepared for the Civil Division of the Scottish Government on the DCFR has now been published on the Scottish Government website. The author is one of the bloggers to this site, and the nature of the advice which she was asked to provide was "...a critical assessment, from the perspective of Scots law, of the content and role of the (now published) first draft of the ‘academic CFR’" Read more... |
| Last night I attended the Edinburgh launch of Laura Macgregor’s and Danny Busch’s book on The Unauthorised Agent: Perspectives from European and Comparative Law. It was a successful and joyous occasion. Good to see such a mix of judges, practitioners, law teachers and students. Good to see Harvey McGregor, active member of the Gandolfi group and author of by far the best English translation of its Draft European Code of Contract. Read more... |
| The revised and expanded Outline Edition of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) is now published and available in book form. See Hector's entry for 20 February for more details. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The Scottish Law Commission is consulting stakeholders on whether in its forthcoming Eighth Programme of Law Reform it should consider the possibility of a draft contract code based on the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR). Read more...Comments (0) |
| European Contract Law - LiteratureLaura Macgregor 25 February 2009 13:48 Recent years have seen the emergence of textbooks devoted to Contract Law within Europe. This term would encompass existing EU contract legislation, the DCFR, and also national systems of contract law within Europe. The publication of these texts underlines the fact that the subject is now seen as a discipline in its own right. Read more...Comments (0) |
| DCFR nouveauHector MacQueen 23 February 2009 22:19 Il est arrivee ... Read more...Comments (0) |
| Privity of contract in the DCFREric Clive 20 February 2009 15:56
Is the lack of a general privity of contract provision in the DCFR a “startling omission”? Simon Whittaker thinks so. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Book Launch - The Unauthorised AgentLaura Macgregor 20 February 2009 15:29 On 10 January 2009 a conference was held at the offices of De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Amsterdam, to mark the publication of a book on agency law in Europe. Its title is The Unauthorised Agent: Perspectives from European and Comparative Law, published by Cambridge University Press. Read more... |
| Sellier, the publishers of the DCFR, have sent us the announcement below. Read more...Comments (0) |
| On 7th February I attended a meeting at Amsterdam university attended by professors, from various European countries, with an active interest in European private law. The meeting followed on earlier meetings in Brussels attended by Hector MacQueen and myself. The topic was the possible development of a European Legal Research Association. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Welcome and updateHector MacQueen 18 February 2009 12:00 Welcome to the European Private Law News blog of the Edinburgh Law School. We aim to report and comment on developments in European Private Law, having in mind mainly an audience of lawyers in Scotland; but we hope also to convey word of relevant developments in Scotland to those elsewhere. Read more...Comments (0) |
