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Beale, Hugh --- "The story of EU contract law – from 2001 to 2014" [2016] ELECD 1130; in Twigg-Flesner, Christian (ed), "Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 431

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law

Editor(s): Twigg-Flesner, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782547365

Section: Chapter 19

Section Title: The story of EU contract law – from 2001 to 2014

Author(s): Beale, Hugh

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

2001 is a significant date in the development of EU contract law because in that year the European Commission published its first consultation paper dealing with issues of contract law generally, as opposed to measures dealing with consumers or aimed at specific issues affecting business-to-business (B2B) contracts. 2014 was the year in which the Commission withdrew its proposal for a Common European Sales Law (CESL), quite possibly signalling the end of any interest in any general form of European contract law. Section II of this chapter will give an overview of developments up to and including the publication of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) in 2009. This part will be brief because the story of the DCFR, and of the work done before 2001, has already been told elsewhere. Section III will describe the development of the CESL proposal. It will explain the way in which the proposal was developed from the DCFR and other sources; the aims and assumptions of the Expert Group which made the first draft; and the additions and changes made by the Commission after the Experts had completed their work. Section IV will give an explanation of the CESL proposal as a whole. More detailed analysis and evaluation of particular issues will be found in some of the other chapters in this volume. Finally, Section V will outline the fate that befell the CESL proposal.