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Beale, Hugh --- "The Draft Academic Common Frame of Reference and the ‘Toolbox’" [2012] ELECD 350; in Andenas, Mads; Andersen, Baasch Camilla (eds), "Theory and Practice of Harmonisation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Theory and Practice of Harmonisation

Editor(s): Andenas, Mads; Andersen, Baasch Camilla

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800013

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Draft Academic Common Frame of Reference and the ‘Toolbox’

Author(s): Beale, Hugh

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

6. The draft academic common frame of
reference and the `toolbox'*1
Hugh Beale2

In October 2009 the Draft Common Frame of Reference3 (DCFR) was pub-
lished. This was prepared as part of the European Commission's Action Plan on
European Contract Law.4 A much shorter `Outline Edition' had been published
in February 2009. In this chapter I comment on the form, coverage, structure
and language of the DCFR. I aim to explain that in part the characteristics are
the result of the way in which it has been produced, drawing on earlier drafts,
but I will argue that with the adaptations that have been made, the DCFR is
appropriate for its intended purposes as a `toolbox'.


THE FORM OF THE DCFR
The shorter book is described as `Outline' because, for the most part, the work
contains only one element of the full academic CFR: that is, the series of articles
or model rules, together with a list of definitions. The full version also contains
an extensive commentary and comparative notes.


* Editor's note: This contribution has been affected by rapid developments in the
field, see the Preface on p. xi for details.
1
This chapter draws on earlier published papers: Beale, H (2007), `The Purposes
of a Common Frame of Reference', 1 Internationaler Rechtsverkehr 25­30 and Beale,
H (2007), `The Structure and the Legal Values of the CFR' in 3 ERCL 257, 269­72.
2
Professor of Law, University of Warwick. I was a member of the ...