Volume 2, Issue 4

Both authors are members of the Acquis Group. As part of the work towards a Common Frame of Reference on European Contract Law (CFR), the Acquis Group is examining the existing rules of EC private law to identify which (if any) principles may form the basis of these measures. This work will complement the comparative work undertaken by the Study Group. In this paper, the authors analyse the challenges posed by the “acquis approach”, and illustrate this with their work on establishing principles on pre-contractual information duties. Having set out the fundamental aspects of the acquis approach, the authors examine the nature and purpose of pre-contractual information duties, before turning to identifying the specific sources in the acquis communautaire. They then suggest a number of possible principles which may be derived from the acquis, but also highlight some of the unresolved questions. Résumé Les deux auteurs sont membres du groupe de l'acquis communautaire. Participant au projet global d'établissement d'un “Cadre commun de référence” (en anglais “CFR” pour Common Frame of Reference) sur le droit européen des contrats, le groupe de l'acquis communautaire examine pour sa part les règles existantes de droit privé communautaire pour identifier s'il existe des principes sous-jacents qui pourraient en constituer le socle. Ce travail complète le travail comparatif pris en charge par le Study Group (“SGECC”, Study Group on a European Civil Code). Dans le présent article, les auteurs analysent les défis posés par l'approche du groupe de l'acquis communautaire et illustrent ceci avec leur travail sur les principes gouvernant les obligations précontractuelles d'information. Ayant présenté les aspects fondamentaux de leur approche, les auteurs examinent la nature et le but des obligations précontractuelles d'information, avant d'entreprendre d'identifier les sources spécifiques de l'acquis communautaire. Ils suggèrent ensuite un nombre de principes possibles qui pourraient être déduits de cet acquis, tout en mettant en lumière certaines questions encore non résolues. Kurzfassung Beide Autoren sind Mitglieder der Acquis Group. Ein Teil der Arbeit an einem Gemeinsamen Referenzrahmen für europäisches Vertragsrecht (GRR) wird durch die Acquis Group, die sich mit den Grundregeln des bestehenden Gemeinschaftsprivatrechts befasst, durchgeführt. Ziel ist es, die jeweiligen Grundregeln herauszuarbeiten und darzustellen. Diese Arbeit wird die Ergebnisse der rechtsvergleichenden Forschung der Study Group ergänzen. In diesem Beitrag schildern die Autoren, welche Herausforderungen der ‘Acquis-Ansatz’ bereitet, und illustrieren dies anhand ihrer Arbeiten zu den Grundregeln zu vorvertraglichen Informationspflichten. Nachdem die Grundlagen des Acquis-Ansatzes analysiert und die Funktion von vorvertraglichen Informationspflichten diskutiert worden sind, wenden sich die Autoren den relevanten Quellen im Gemeinschaftsrecht zu. Darauf werden mögliche Grundregeln entwickelt und noch zu lösende Fragen aufgeworfen.

Judgment of the House of Lords of 25 October 2001, The Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank plc, [2001] UKHL 52.

NB: This section presents a series of non legislative actions and legislative acts directly or indirectly linked to contract law, which were adopted at European level between end October 2005 and January 2005.

Originally, contract law was considered to be immune from the effect of fundamental rights, the function of which was limited to being individual defences against the vigilant eye of the state. This traditional view, however, has recently been put under pressure as a result of fundamental rights increasingly becoming relevant for (European) contract law. The relationships between private parties under contract law have started losing their immunity from the effect of fundamental rights. It is argued in this essay that the major question at present is no longer whether fundamental rights may have an impact on contract law, but to what extent this will occur, and that the answer to this question will determine the future of (European) contract law.

Swedish contract law is fragmentary. Outside consumer law, no major reforms have been introduced in the last fifty years, apart from a provision in the Contract Act on unfair contract terms and change of circumstances from 1976 and a new Sales of Goods Act from 1990. Contract law has developed mainly in doctrine and case law. Although it does not follow from express legislation, it is now clear that there is a liability for negotiations in bad faith. Agency is perhaps undergoing a small case law reform in favour of third parties. We have seen quite extensive and liberal case law relating to illegal contracts and contracts against good morals. Case law indicates that the Contract Act provision on unfair contract terms and change of circumstances is applied extremely rarely in business-to-business-relationships. Modern interpretation of contracts is closely parallel to UNIDROIT Principles and Principles of European Contract Law.

Pietro Sirena (ed), Il diritto europeo dei contratti d'impresa – autonomia negoziale dei privati e regolazione del mercato (Milan: Giuffrè, 2006) 56 Euro. (Stefan Grundmann) Filippo Ranieri, Europäisches Obligationenrecht (2 nd edition, Vienna/New York: Springer 2003) 742 pages, hardback, € 115,–, ISBN 3-211-01440-3 (Christiana Fountoulakis, Peter Jung)