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Welcome to the second meeting of the European Social Contract Law (EuSoCo) project in Hamburg July 1, 2010. Consumer, Tenant and Labour Lawyers are late to discuss European Contract Law.

15 scholars from different member states of the European Union  will come to Hamburg and be hosted by iff and the University of Hamburg.  The meeting is in connection with the European Conference on Responsible Credit which will take place on July 2 and 3 at the chamber of commerce in Hamburg where the project will also be presented on one of its workshops.  In short also the book A Factual Assessment of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (mehr …)

Udo Reifner/Luca Nogler

Preface

The following points have been updated from the paper presented at the Trento seminar on September 25, 2009. We use the notion „lifetime contracts“ as a working definition for social longterm contracts like labour, tenancy and consumer (credit) contracts. From a political perspective we should relate to „economic and social interest covered by labour, consumer and tenancy law“ . This relates to the existing social associations (trade unions, consumer organisations and tenancy associations) as well as to the correponding law associations (Int.Labour Law; IACL; Deutscher Mietrechtstag etc) providing our project with the chance to political support and a link to the social movement. Since the concept of consumer law is quite unclear covering a mere market orientation in its neo-liberal information model on one hand while on the other it also covers what is called „the economic interest“ of consumers which coincides with „debtor’s protection“ especially present in credit law we should make it clear that our focus on consumer law is economic and social and not informational. (mehr …)

IP/10/595  Date:  21/05/2010

European Commission convenes legal expert group to seek solutions on contract law

The European Commission, seeking to boost cross-border trade and to ensure strong rights for consumers, convened a new expert group to propose ways to improve contract law in the European Union. The group of 18 contract law experts, lawyers and consumer representatives met for the first time today in Brussels. The Commission will launch a public consultation on the most appropriate way forward to improve coherence in contract law in the summer. A possible solution could be an optional European contract law (or „28th system“). For example, an Irish retailer dealing with a French supplier, who is unfamiliar with French law, could opt for European law for the contract. In addition, a Polish consumer shopping on the Internet could push a „blue button“ on the website and choose the European contract law instrument, which would guarantee a high level of consumer protection. (mehr …)

The Economic and Social Committee has presented a proposal that would establish the DCFR as the dominant civil code in Europe. The European Commission after presenting a Roadmap has now established 20 experts (Official Journal for 27 April 2010 (OJ L105, 27.4.2010, 109-111) which within the next two years (until 26 April 2012) are supposed to present a Common Frame of Reference for a European Contract Law.

Article 2: Task
The group’s task shall be to assist the Commission in the preparation  of a proposal for a Common Frame of Reference in the area of European contract law, including consumer and business contract law, and in particular in:

• (a) selecting those parts of the Draft Common Frame of Reference which are of direct or indirect relevance to contract law; and
• (b) restructuring, revising and supplementing the selected contents of the Draft Common Frame of Reference, taking also into consideration other research work conducted in this area as well as the Union acquis.

Optional Code CES Statement for a DCFR 2010 English

Optinal Code CES Statement in Deutsch

Code Optional Comité Èconomique et Sociale en Francais

CES Committee releases Proposal for a 28th regime which puts the choice of national contract law und competitive pressure

1.8 The optional regime should therefore:

a) be conceived as a „2nd Regime“ in each Member State, thus providing parties with an option between two regimes of domestic contract law;
b) be defined at EU level and enacted by EU regulations;
c) facilitate interaction between parties in the drafting process;
d) contain provisions of mandatory law ensuring a high level of protection for the weaker party, at least similar to those granted by the EU or national mandatory rules, applicable whenever necessary;
e) limit the option of the parties to a choice of the entire instrument thus avoiding the possibility of „cherry-picking“.

3.1.5 A „2nd Regime“ would be particularly helpful in areas where private international law (Rome I) forbids or restricts the free choice of law by the parties, as is the case with transport (Article 5 Rome I), consumer (Article 6 Rome I), insurance (Article 7 Rome I) and employment (Article 8 Rome I) contracts. The optional instrument could even apply to internationally mandatory rules (Article 9 Rome I) provided that it takes sufficient care of the general interest protected by such rules . However, this 2nd regime should not apply to labour law or employment contracts in force in the Member States of the European Union3.2.2 This can be safeguarded by three means:

a) First of all, the „2nd Regime“ would have to provide for mandatory rules itself and to apply a high level of protection for the weaker party ;
b) Secondly, any exclusion of particular provisions of the „2nd Regime“ by agreement must be prevented in order to forbid a „mix“ of national law and the „2nd Regime“ by choosing the most relaxed standards from each source of law;
c) Consumer should be informed about the optional instruments through general consumer information provided by consumer organisations as well as a pre-contractual duty of the entrepreneur to inform the consumer that the contract offered is subject to the optional instrument.

… The network on „Common Principles of European Contract Law“ (CoPECL-Network) has recently finished its Draft Common Frame of Reference[1] and submitted it to the European Commission. Clearly, those rules provide the European legislator with a model which it could use when enacting an optional instrument as advocated by Commissioner Reding[2]. What is still needed is a rule on the optional application of the CFR/Common Principles in line with the already existing proposal of Article 1:102 PEICL[3].