For many years, legal scholars around Europe have debated the possibility of a "European" law of contract. The most significant contribution to date have been the Principles of European Contract Law. In the meantime, a process of Europeanising contract law has been driven by the legislative activity of the European Union, which has adopted a string of directives touching on various aspects of contract law, mainly consumer law.
Many of these directives have dealt with fairly isolated aspect of contract law. Consequently, the European influence has hitherto been rather fragmented, and lacks overall coherence. The overall aim of this book is to trace the process of Europeanisation of Contract Law by examining critically the developments to date and their impact on English law, in particular, as well as the implications of the EU's desire to move towards greater coherence. The arguments for and against greater convergence in the field of contract law are also covered.
This second edition has been fully updated to reflect the most recent developments in EU contract law. It includes coverage of the Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law (the Draft Common Frame of Reference), and also addresses the proposed EC Consumer Rights Directive and its likely impact on consumer contracts.