Abstract
This chapter explores the origin and the ambitions of the CESL and its rules on contents and effects of contracts. Firstly, the chapter evidences how the CESL relies on previous models such as the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC), the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), and some EU directives in the field of contract law. The chapter thereby demonstrates that the CESL rules on contents and effects of contracts are not innovative, since almost all of them originate from the PECL (with the exception of two rules, of which one takes pattern from the DCFR and the other follows the model of the EU Consumer Rights Directive). Secondly, this chapter discusses whether the ambition of the CESL really consists in improving the functioning of the internal market, as the choice of art 114 TFEU as a legal basis might suggest. The chapter criticizes the latter choice and submits that invoking art 114 TFEU for such an instrument is hardly compatible with the case law of the ECJ. Arguably, the most important ambition of the CESL is not its internal market functionality but a different one: The CESL substantially contains model rules of general contract law, suitable for all contracts, not just for sales of goods or digital content. Therefore, the CESL rules are important for the future of private law in Europe.
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Notes
- 1.
See already O Remien ‘Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht für die EU? Eine Einführung’ in O Remien, S Herrler and P Limmer (eds) Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht für die EU? Analyse des Vorschlags der Europäischen Kommission für ein optionales Europäisches Vertragsrecht vom 11.10.2011 (München, Beck, 2012) 1 et seq.
- 2.
E Rabel, Das Recht des Warenkaufs, volumes 1 and 2 (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, I 1936 and reprint 1957, II 1958).
- 3.
Cf also O Lando ‘CESL or CISG? Should the proposed EU Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) replace the United Nations Convention on International Sales (CISG)?’ in O Remien, S Herrler and P Limmer (eds), Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht für die EU? Analyse des Vorschlags der Europäischen Kommission für ein optionales Europäisches Vertragsrecht vom 11.10.2011 (München, Beck, 2012) 15.
- 4.
See eg Lando ibid 15; O Remien ibid 1 and 2.
- 5.
Commission on European Contract Law, Minutes of the third meeting, held at Hamburg at the Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, 8–10 November 1982, by O Remien, p 3, cited Minutes III p 3. In this chapter, reference to further Minutes of the (first) Commission on European Contract Law will be made in the same manner, indicating the number of the meeting by a Latin number and then giving the relevant page. The author has been the Secretary of the (first) Commission on European Contract Law (1982–1990) chaired by Ole Lando.
- 6.
The first drafts, however, only had a chapter on “Effects and Performance”.
- 7.
CH Wendehorst ‘Regelungen über den Vertragsinhalt (Teil III CESL-Entwurf)’ in CH Wendehorst and B Zöchling-Jud (eds), Am Vorabend eines Gemeinsamen Europäischen Kaufrechts, um Verordnungsentwurf der Europäischen Kommission vom 11.10.2011 (Wien, Manz, 2012) 91.
- 8.
See D Looschelders and M Makowsky ‘Kapitel 7: Inhalt und Wirkungen von Verträgen’ in M Schmidt-Kessel (ed), Ein einheitliches europäisches Kaufrecht? Eine Analyse des Vorschlags der Kommission (München, Sellier, 2012) 227 et seq.
- 9.
EM Kieninger in R Schulze (ed), Common European Sales Law (CESL), Commentary (Baden-Baden, München, Portland, Nomos, Beck, Hart, 2012) art 66 no 2.
- 10.
Kieninger in R Schulze (ed), CESL art 69 no 1 (n 9).
- 11.
See also Looschelders and Makowsky ‘Kapitel 7: Inhalt und Wirkungen’ (n 8) 234 fn 32.
- 12.
W Ernst ‘Das AGB-Recht des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Kaufrechts’ in O Remien, S Herrler and P Limmer (eds), Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht für die EU? Analyse des Vorschlags der Europäischen Kommission für ein optionales Europäisches Vertragsrecht vom 11.10.2011 (München, Beck, 2012) 97.
- 13.
Critically Kieninger (n 9) art 70 no 6.
- 14.
See also Looschelders and Makowsky (n 8) 241.
- 15.
Kieninger (n 9) art 71 no 12.
- 16.
Cf also Kieninger (n 9) art 72 no 2 and 3.
- 17.
Kieninger (n 9) art 72 no 9.
- 18.
Minutes VII 38ff (on § 1.105 with four sub-paragraphs); VIII 19ff; X 23ff; XII 16f (split up in four sections); XIII 19ff.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
See also Kieninger (n 9) art 73 no 4.
- 21.
See also Kieninger (n 9) CESL art 74 no 2.
- 22.
On this question also Kieninger (n 9) art 75 nos 1 to 3.
- 23.
J Kleinheisterkamp in ST Vogenauer and J Kleinheisterkamp (eds), Commentary on the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009) art 5.1.7 no 10.
- 24.
Cf also Kieninger (n 9) art 76 no 2.
- 25.
Kieninger (n 9) art 76 no 3.
- 26.
DCFR art II.-9:109 Comment B.
- 27.
See also Kieninger (n 9) art 77 no 2.
- 28.
Cf eg in Germany § 314 BGB.
- 29.
Minutes XIII 41ff; see there also the reference to art 16 Commercial Agents Directive.
- 30.
Minutes VIII 31ff (Minutes VIII by Henning Klinkenberg) and IX 27ff; X 14f; XI 16; XIV 11f; see also IX 28 no 47 on the title “Agreement in favour of a third party” for § 1.113A.
- 31.
Similar Kieninger (n 9) art 78 nos 2ff.
- 32.
See Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999; on this topic from a British comparative perspective, BS Markesinis, H Unberath and A Johnston, The German Law of Contract, A Comparative Treatise, 2nd edn (Oxford and Portland, Hart Publishing, 2006) 181 et seq with Chapter 4, “Relaxations to Contractual Privity”.
- 33.
Cf Minutes VI 29ff; VII 15ff; VIII 14ff; IX 19ff; X 20; XI 15f; XII 15; XIII 18f; XIV 15.
- 34.
See recitals 1 to 7 of the Draft Regulation.
- 35.
“Differences in national contract laws therefore constitute barriers which prevent consumers and traders from reaping the benefits of the internal market”, is the first sentence of recital 6.
- 36.
At the time of the symposium: Viviane Reding from Luxembourg.
- 37.
See eg O Remien ‘Allgemeine parallele Zivilrechtskompetenz der Europäischen Union? Zur verfassungspolitischen Bedeutung der Kompetenzfrage beim Vorschlag eines Gemeinsamen Europäischen Kaufrechts (GEKR/CESL)’ in N Witzleb, R Ellger, P Mankowsky, H Merkt and O Remien (eds) Festschrift für Dieter Martiny zum 70. Geburtstag (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2014) 987, 993 et seq.
- 38.
Remien (n 37) 1000 et seq.
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Remien, O. (2016). Origin and Ambitions of the Common European Sales Law, Especially Its Chapter on Contents and Effects. In: Colombi Ciacchi, A. (eds) Contents and Effects of Contracts-Lessons to Learn From The Common European Sales Law. Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28074-5_2
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