| 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) |
| 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 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) |
| 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 (1) |
| European or global private law?Eric Clive 16 February 2010 13:20 If we take a long-term view and ignore certain political and transitional difficulties (and it is admittedly a big IF) it is easy to answer the question “Why European private law rather than national private laws?” For a single internal market to operate with 28 or more different private laws on such matters as contract, delict and movable property is wasteful, inefficient and non-competitive. It does not make sense. We simply do not need so many laws. To answer the question “Why European private law rather than global private law?” is more difficult. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Your correspondent has belatedly caught up with a failed attempt in the now defunct (judicial) House of Lords to use European private law texts to unseat a rule of English law on the interpretation of contracts. Read more...Comments (1) |
| One of the themes of the setting-up of the expert group was transparency. Transparency should not mean invisibility. So here is a brief report on what has been happening and on how to find out more. Read more...Comments (0) |
| These are the splendidly mixed colours and metaphors in the title to an article in the Archiv für die civilistiche Praxis (Feb 2011 at pp. 1-34) by Walter Doralt. The blue button is the term sometimes used to describe an optional instrument on European contract law, the idea being that a business would put on its website a blue button which the customer would click if prepared to contract on the terms of the instrument. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The metaphor of the toolbox is widely used in the current debate on European private law. It has been criticised in the committee rooms of the House of Lords. It has been mocked in the great hall of the Sorbonne. It is still used. It has its delights and its dangers. It may be time to abandon it. Read more...Comments (0) |
| At a conference in London on the EU contract law project a few years ago I found myself standing next to a stranger. I introduced myself - “Eric Clive, Edinburgh University”. He replied “Thismus Bestopt”. I learned his real name later but I will always think of him as Thismus. Read more...Comments (0) |
| I was at an interesting meeting in Brussels last Friday. It was at the Brussels offshoot of Maastricht University and it was a discussion on the proposed Common European Sales Law. The sub-title was “Have the right choices been made?” Read more...Comments (0) |
| Conference at TrierEric Clive 16 February 2012 11:41 The ERA conference at Trier last week on “An Optional European Sales Law” was, in retrospect, more consolidation than revelation. There were papers on the political debate, on the legal basis and scope of the proposed Regulation, on the conflict of law issues and on the text of the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL) itself. On the broad question of policy there was support from most speakers but obstinate opposition from BEUC, the European consumers’ umbrella organisation. Read more...Comments (0) |
| On 16 and 17 February a workshop took place at Tsinghua University School of Law, Beijing. This was the first meeting of the collaborators in a project which aims to investigate contract law in China and Europe in a comparative and cross-cultural perspective. The outcome of the project, funded by The China European School of Law, will be an edited book to be published in 2013. Read more... |
| The European Parliament held a public hearing on the proposal for a Common European Sales Law on 1st March. In his opening remarks Klaus-Heiner Lehne, Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs and rapporteur for the Common European Sales law, said that this was a particularly important project – for the internal market and for the citizens – and that the Parliament planned to hold a series of hearings and workshops. The objective was an instrument which could be adopted and accepted. Read more...Comments (0) |
| The proposed Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) was discussed briefly on 12 April in the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). Different views were expressed. Many were hostile to the proposal. It is clear that lively debates lie ahead. Read more...Comments (0) |
| It seems that some of the English lawyers who are opposed to the idea that the Common European Sales Law (CESL) should apply in business-to-business (B2B) contracts are thinking that their case would be strengthened if the United Kingdom were quickly to ratify the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). This is worth considering. Read more...Comments (0) |
| Last week I attended an excellent conference in Rome on “The Making of European Private Law”. I will report on the conference later. This post is just to pass on some news which emerged on its fringes. Anna Veneziano has been appointed as the new deputy Secretary-General of the Unidroit Institute. Read more... |
| In preparation for the next meeting of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to be held in New York from 25 June to 6 July 2012 Switzerland has submitted a proposal to the secretariat for the undertaking of work in the area of contract law. At the Rome conference last week on “The Making of European Private Law” Renaud Sorieul, the UNCITRAL Secretary, indicated that the secretariat would see a particular interest in this proposal. Read more... |
| Christian von Bar reports that good progress is being made on the Korean translation of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR). Read more...Comments (0) |
| Some of the amendments suggested in the excellent draft report by Mr Lehne and Mr Berlinguer to the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee were considered in the last post. Here are some brief comments on a number of the other amendments suggested. Read more...Comments (0) |
