House of Lords EU Sub-Committee E (Law and Institutions)
Short Inquiry into the Draft Common Frame of Reference
Wednesday 17th December, 2008
Lord Bach, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice
link:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3078
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
Welcome to the CFR blog!
(full title: ‘Common Frame of Reference EU Contract Law’)
Blog objective:
a BODY OF KNOWLEDGE and
JOINT DISCUSSION PLATFORM for all BUSINESS stakeholders to monitor the Common Frame of Reference for EU Contract Law (CFR) Project.
Is business interested in a CFR?
A Survey by Clifford Chance one of the world’s leading law firms showed that business wants the European Commission to continue its deliberations on an optional instrument: http://www.cliffordchance.com/expertise/publications/details.aspx?FilterName=@URL&LangID=UK&contentitemid=8354
It concluded:
“Business in the EU is very interested in a neutral, EU contract law, and would be likely to use it. But this does, of course, depend upon it being a good law that enables trade and gives business the predictability it needs.”
What is the CFR?
The CFR is the biggest project facing the European legislator in the field of civil and commercial law.
It is a long-term, expensive project which aims at providing the European Legislators (Commission, Council and European Parliament) with a "toolbox" or a handbook to be used for the revision of existing and the preparation of new legislation in the area of European contract law. This toolbox could contain fundamental principles of contract law, definitions of key concepts and model provisions.
Link to official EU CFR website: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/index_en.htm
Is the CFR a new idea?
Movements devoted to harmonising law between countries are not new:
UNIDROIT: in 1926 the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit) was set up, originally under the aegis of the League of Nations but now as an independent intergovernmental organisation with its own statute. In 1994, it published its Principles of International Commercial Contracts, which it updated ten years later.
PECL: 1995 to 2000, a precursor of the CFR Study Group produced a set of "Principles of European Contract Law".
What is the state of play with the CFR?
in 2008, the EU Commission started to select those parts of the academic CFR which are relevant for the final Commission CFR, on the basis of its policy objectives. All the Directorate-Generals (DGs) concerned are involved in this selection process according to their field of competence, of course including DG JHA (Justice & Home Affairs). The final selection will be presented for consultation to the other institutions, including Parliament and stakeholders.
The Commission intends to ensure that the Commission CFR will be translated so that it can be discussed and applied in order to improve the quality of EU contract law legislation and to make it more coherent.
The Commission CFR will most probably be considerably shorter than the academic draft which was delivered by the Researchers from all over Europe at the end of 2007. The Commission has said given the huge work which will already be necessary to translate the CFR, it does not make sense to spend valuable translation resources to translate parts of an academic draft which are not relevant for the purposes of the CFR.
Consultation with business stakeholders?
The EU Commission has announced that it will be organising more CFR-net workshops in 2009 on the topics:
-Grounds of validity
-Formation
-Remedies for non-performance
-Prescriptions
The last CFR-net workshop was at the end of 2007.
The blog was created by Paul Abbiati an expert on EU Contract Law, a UK member of the CFR-net: law@abbiati.co.uk
(full title: ‘Common Frame of Reference EU Contract Law’)
Blog objective:
a BODY OF KNOWLEDGE and
JOINT DISCUSSION PLATFORM for all BUSINESS stakeholders to monitor the Common Frame of Reference for EU Contract Law (CFR) Project.
Is business interested in a CFR?
A Survey by Clifford Chance one of the world’s leading law firms showed that business wants the European Commission to continue its deliberations on an optional instrument: http://www.cliffordchance.com/expertise/publications/details.aspx?FilterName=@URL&LangID=UK&contentitemid=8354
It concluded:
“Business in the EU is very interested in a neutral, EU contract law, and would be likely to use it. But this does, of course, depend upon it being a good law that enables trade and gives business the predictability it needs.”
What is the CFR?
The CFR is the biggest project facing the European legislator in the field of civil and commercial law.
It is a long-term, expensive project which aims at providing the European Legislators (Commission, Council and European Parliament) with a "toolbox" or a handbook to be used for the revision of existing and the preparation of new legislation in the area of European contract law. This toolbox could contain fundamental principles of contract law, definitions of key concepts and model provisions.
Link to official EU CFR website: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/cont_law/index_en.htm
Is the CFR a new idea?
Movements devoted to harmonising law between countries are not new:
UNIDROIT: in 1926 the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit) was set up, originally under the aegis of the League of Nations but now as an independent intergovernmental organisation with its own statute. In 1994, it published its Principles of International Commercial Contracts, which it updated ten years later.
PECL: 1995 to 2000, a precursor of the CFR Study Group produced a set of "Principles of European Contract Law".
What is the state of play with the CFR?
in 2008, the EU Commission started to select those parts of the academic CFR which are relevant for the final Commission CFR, on the basis of its policy objectives. All the Directorate-Generals (DGs) concerned are involved in this selection process according to their field of competence, of course including DG JHA (Justice & Home Affairs). The final selection will be presented for consultation to the other institutions, including Parliament and stakeholders.
The Commission intends to ensure that the Commission CFR will be translated so that it can be discussed and applied in order to improve the quality of EU contract law legislation and to make it more coherent.
The Commission CFR will most probably be considerably shorter than the academic draft which was delivered by the Researchers from all over Europe at the end of 2007. The Commission has said given the huge work which will already be necessary to translate the CFR, it does not make sense to spend valuable translation resources to translate parts of an academic draft which are not relevant for the purposes of the CFR.
Consultation with business stakeholders?
The EU Commission has announced that it will be organising more CFR-net workshops in 2009 on the topics:
-Grounds of validity
-Formation
-Remedies for non-performance
-Prescriptions
The last CFR-net workshop was at the end of 2007.
The blog was created by Paul Abbiati an expert on EU Contract Law, a UK member of the CFR-net: law@abbiati.co.uk
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