Principles of European Law

The Study Group on a European Civil Code has taken upon itself the task of drafting common European principles for the most important aspects of the law of obligations and for certain parts of the law of property in movables which are especially relevant for the functioning of the common market.

Like the Commission on European Contract Law’s "Principles of European Contract Law", the results of the research conducted by the Study Group on a European Civil Code seek to advance the process of Europeanisation of private law. Among other topics the series tackles sales and service contracts, distribution contracts and security rights, renting contracts and loan agreements, negotiorum gestio, delicts and unjustified enrichment law, transfer of property, and trust law.

The principles furnish each of the national jurisdictions a grid reference. They could be agreed upon by the parties within the framework of the rules of private international law. They may provide a stimulus to both the national and European legislator for moulding private law. Beyond this, they aim to further discussion about the creation of a European Civil Code, or a Common Frame of Reference in the area of patrimonial law, by submitting a concrete model.

The "Principles of European Law" are published in co-operation with Oxford University Press (Great Britain) and Staempfli Publishers (Switzerland).

This volume contains the major result of the work undertaken by the international research group "Transfer of Movables" which belonged to the Study Group on a European Civil Code. It covers the most important aspects of the law of property in movables, such as the transfer of ownership based on the transferor's right and the good faith acquisition of ownership. The suggested black letter provisions are accompanied by extensive explanatory comments and comparative notes providing information on the existing rules of the EU Member States.

As compared to Book VIII of the DCFR, this volume contains additional and partly revised national notes, extended comments, translations of the black letter rules and adapted registers.

The "Principles of European Law" are published in co-operation with Oxford University Press and Staempfli (Switzerland).

"Unjustified enrichment" is one of the three main non-contractual obligations dealt with in the DCFR.

In recent years unjustified enrichment has been one of the most intellectually animated areas of private law. In an area of law whose territory is still partially uncharted and whose boundaries are contested, this volume of Principles of European Law will be invaluable for academic analysis of the law and its development by the courts.

During the drafting process, comparative material from over 25 different EU jurisdictions has been taken into account. The work therefore is not only a presentation of a future model for European rules to come but provides also a fairly detailed indication of the present legal situation in the Member States.

"Non-contractual liability arising out of damage caused to another" is one of the three main non-contractual obligations dealt with in the DCFR.

The law of non-contractual liability arising out of damage caused to another (in the Common Law known as tort law or the law of torts, but in most other jurisdictions referred to as the law of delict) is the area of law which determines whether one who has suffered a damage can on that account demand reparation (in money or in kind) from another with whom there may be no other legal connection than the causation of damage itself. Besides determining the scope and extent of responsibility for dangers of one's own or another's creation, this field of law serves to protect fundamental rights in the private law domain, that is to say horizontally between citizens inter se. Based on pan-European comparative research which annotates the work, this volume presents model rules on liability. Explanatory comments and illustrations amplify the policy decisions involved.

During the drafting process, comparative material from over 25 different EU jurisdictions has been taken into account. The work therefore is not only a presentation of a future model for European rules to come but provides also a fairly detailed indication of the present legal situation in the Member States.

The rules presented in this volume of the "Principles of European Law" deal with sales contracts. The sales contact has served as the paradigm for contracts in general. Moreover, it is also probably the most common contract, and certainly the most common consumer contract, that there is. In fact, sales come in all shapes and sizes: ranging from the purchase of the daily newspaper at the news-stand or the groceries in the supermarket, through to the purchase of a new car and to commodity sales on highly specialised markets. Furthermore, there are many mixed transactions that contain a certain element of sale, such as distribution contracts or all sorts or manufacturing contracts.

The contract for lease of goods is well known in practical life. Short-time leases of cars, to both businesses and consumers, are perhaps the most striking example, but contracts for temporary use of another person’s goods in exchange for rent are common for a wide range of products, like industrial equipment, office machines, leisure boats, sports gear, etc. Long-term leases are often chosen as an alternative to other forms of acquisition of goods ("financial leases").

This book presents a set of Principles of European law on lease contracts within the framework of the Study Group on a European Civil Code. The Principles are closely co-ordinated with other parts of what will become the Draft Common Frame of Reference for European contract law, prepared for the European Commission by several pan-European research teams co-operating in a network of excellence under the sixth Research Framework Programme.

The Principles are accompanied by explanatory comments and comparative notes containing information on lease law for 27 European countries as well as on relevant international instruments. Thus, the book is a source to knowledge on existing law, in addition to being a contribution to the analysis of the interplay between general contract law and the law of specific contracts as well as to the discussion of future European private law.

A creditor who made a loan to a debtor but does not have full confidence into the ability or willingness of the debtor to repay the loan fully and punctually, has two main options for securing his loan capital: He either can demand that the debtor gives him real security by encumbering one or several of his assets. Or he suggests to the debtor to win over a third party to act as a guarantor and to assume joint liability for repayment of the loan.

Such a form of personal security by means of a bond has been known for centuries. During the last decades, however, a number of other models for providing personal security for loans have been developed, in particular the guarantee, by now widely used in commerce.

Within the framework of plans of the Commission of the European Union to work out a uniform "framework of reference" for contract law, a multinational work group of the Study Group on a European Civil Code prepared proposals for uniform rules on personal security models. The proposals are based on legal developments formulated in the member states in the last decades and present draft uniform rules for the two basic types, viz. the dependent and the independent personal security for loans. Each proposal not only is accompanied by explanations but the legal situation in each of the 15 old member states is sketched also.

The work therefore is not only a presentation of a future model for European rules to come but provides also a fairly detailed indication of the present legal situation in the member states.

The rules presented in this volume of "Principles of European Law" deal with service contracts. The economic importance of service contracts within the European Union is enormous. The European Commission recently estimated that services account for some 50% of EU GDP and for some 60% of employment in the Union – though an exact figure is hard to determine given that many services are provided by manufacturers of goods. According to the European Commission, many services appear in official statistics as manufacturing activity, meaning that the role of services in the economy is often significantly underestimated.

The rules presented in this volume of "Principles of European Law" deal with commercial agency, franchise and distribution contracts, and with other contracts where one party uses the other party's skill and efforts to bring its products to the market. Although these Principles are not directly applicable to other long-term (commercial) contracts, some of the Articles may be applied to such contracts by way of analogy where appropriate.
The economic function of all three contracts is that they are instrumental in bringing products to the market. They are so-called vertical agreements, as they are agreements between economic actors on different levels in the production and distribution chain. Obviously, the economic importance of these contracts is enormous since they form the connection between producers and retailers who sell the products to consumers and other final users. There are only very few economic sectors where producers regularly sell their products directly to final consumer users.
Goodwill compensation after the ending of a distribution contract, the moment at which the agent's commission is due, the franchisor's obligation to maintain the good reputation of the network are but a few examples of issues where specific rules are needed in order to give legal practice some guidance and to provide practitioners with a reasonable degree of legal certainty.

In all legal systems of the European Union the law of contract and the law of tort form the main pillars of the law of obligations. Legal history and comparative law show, however, that it is not possible to cope with these two bodies of rules alone – even if their scope of application is generously conceived. Another part of the law of obligations, alongside the law of unjustified enrichment, which to some extent lies “between” contract and tort and fills the gaps that those areas of the law leave behind, is subject of this Book. The Study Group on a European Civil Code has drafted Principles relating to the unsolicited and voluntary undertaking of another’s affairs on the basis of a reasonable ground for intervention: “Principles of European Law: Benevolent Intervention in Another’s Affairs”.