Volume 16, Issue 4

The Europeanisation of domestic law calls for a classical methodology to ‘update’ the established traditions of the law. The relationship between European directives and national law is difficult, since directives do apply, but European legal texts need to be implemented into national law. Whilst directives are not binding on private individuals, there is no direct third-party effect, but only an ‘indirect effect’. This effect is influenced by the stipulations of the ECJ, but is ultimately determined in accordance with methodical principles of national law. The ECJ uses a broad term of interpretation of the law. In contrast, in German and Austrian legal methodology the wording of a provision defines the dividing line between interpretation and further development of the law. The article reveals how legal scholars and the case-law have gradually shown in recent decades a greater willingness to shift from a narrow, traditional boundary of permissible development of the law to a modern line of case-law regarding the boundary of directive-compliant, permissible development of the law.

The progressive automation of management and production processes is increasingly affecting the way contracts are handled. Although for contract automation more concepts are currently being discussed than actually applied, the outlines of what will be possible in the future have become apparent. They raise the questions of what challenges contract handling will have to cope with in the future and whether the concept of contract lifecycle management (CLM) provides a suitable framework for this task. To give answers to these questions, the present article analyses the impact of the pull-effects of new forms of business and the push-effects of technology on the function, content, representation and usage of contracts. The results indicate that these developments entail major changes in the way contracts are handled and that the CLM concept will only be able to address them with considerable adjustments.

From a purely contractual perspective, this article reflects upon labour standard clauses with the objective to ensure that the fundamental ILO conventions and the International Bill of Human Rights are complied with throughout global value chains in respectively business-to-business (private), and public commercial contracts. The clauses are in both settings based widely on the same standards; however scholarship on the two types of contracts has been quite separate. The article reviews some Scandinavian case law concerning labour standard clauses and procurement regulation. It finds that contractual argumentation supported the outcome in these cases, isolates this argumentation, and reflects on whether contractual perspectives on the public contract might inspire current research on private contracts. It finally argues that an actual fusion is already taking place, wherefore contract lawyers may play an important role as to whether ‘the interpretative wall’ should be breached, or whether this is not feasible due to the distinctive characteristics of each contract.