The new EP Library Catalogue allows you to search the EP collection for:
- Journals, books and articles in paper or electronic format
- EPRS and Policy Department publications
Abstract: The subject-matter of this lecture is the fate of ideas about or from European contract law in a United Kingdom (UK) which ceased to be a Member State of the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020 and then shortly afterwards shared the common European and indeed global experience of the coronavirus pandemic. Its main thrust is that, while in the UK Brexit has been a major setback to the idea of European contract law – indeed, European private law – the continuing pandemic provides an opportunity for Scots and English law to re-engage with the subject to find answers – or better answers – to the problems which they now face. The main substantive topics addressed are frustration of contract, equitable adjustment upon change of circumstances, and the requirements of good faith.
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the most relevant cases decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning contract law. The present issue covers the period between the beginning of June 2021 and the end of December 2021. Out of a total of 329 judgments decided in this period, 55 had a contract law dimension.
Abstract: The reasonable expectations standard permeates European contract law. An influential objection against reasonable expectations, related to it being formulated as a standard, is its apparent vagueness: it does not sufficiently specify its criteria, and is thus redundant in providing guidance for individuals’ behaviour. This article argues that European contract law clarifies the content of reasonable expectations by identifying different grounds for them – mandatory rules, action-based rules, default rules, indicative rules, industry-related rules and (unregulated) practices – and establishing a relatively structured hierarchy between them. For this reason, the standard of reasonable expectations contributes to effective guidance for the behaviour of subjects of European contract law.
Abstract: In this article, I ask whether contract law can learn anything from the #MeToo discussions of consent. When we juxtapose consent in these two contexts, two issues emerge. The first is whether consent is a valuable ethical tool in helping us to determine whether an agreement is ‘good’. This article argues that just as patriarchy makes a mockery of consent in negotiating sexual encounters, so too do free market economics make a mockery of consent and freedom to contract. The second issue is whether consent should be understood objectively or subjectively. While favouring the centralizing of a subjective approach as #MeToo did, this article also affirms the critical critique of objectivity and questions the objectivity/subjectivity dichotomy altogether. This article ends with a nod towards the theorization of contract as feminist and as relational.
Abstract: In Justice in Transactions and elsewhere, Peter Benson presents his theory of contract law, “contract as a transfer of ownership”, as being capable of providing a public basis of justification for court decisions on contracts. In this article, I argue that Benson’s theory of public justification of judicial decisions is a sort of consensus theory according to which public justification requires reasons shared by the justificatory constituency or members of the public. In Benson’s case, certain reasons are taken as shared because they are constitutive of the practice of contract law. One of the main theses of the article is that, for Benson’s theory of public justification to hold, the public justification must be composed only of those citizens for whom the practice of contract law as a whole is legitimate. The exclusion of other citizens (that is, those who regard contract law as illegitimate), however, does no greater damage to Benson’s theory. In addition, I also argue that considerations about the public justification of judicial decisions do little to defend the thesis that contract as a transfer of ownership is the best interpretive theory of contract law.
Abstract: This article aims to contribute to the elucidation of the philosophical foundations of EU contract law through a critical discussion of different understandings of progress and their respective implications. Claims about progress and regress invariably refer to a normative or evaluative standard. Such standards, it is usually understood, allow us – backward-looking – to take stock and to determine how much progress (in our case) EU contract law has made, and provide us – forward-looking – with a sense of where (in our case) EU contract law should be going. Therefore, the core normative question in this contribution is: what if anything should count as progress in EU contract law? The article, first, examines understandings of progress that are immanent to EU contract law or to EU constitutional law, in particular the specific aims of directives and the various more general constitutionalised objectives. It, then, moves on to consider external standards for progress that have been suggested in the literature. These standards typically rely either on a teleological conception of the common or individual private law good, such as efficiency and self-authorship, or on a deontological conception of private law right, notably interpersonal and social justice. Subsequently, the article confronts recent post- and decolonial critiques of the very idea of progress and their implications for EU contract law and its study. Finally, it argues for a self-critical reflexive stance towards progress in EU contract law, grounded in a strong commitment to moral and epistemic equality, which requires overcoming unilateral universalisms.
Abstract: Technology affects various facets of the society and law. It has been tightly coupled in a symbiotic relationship with commercial law, including the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.). While the conceptual framework of the U.C.C. and its realist ethos has fostered innovation since the 1950s, recent technological advances pose new challenges. In particular, digital assets traded in decentralized blockchain systems promise to engender a wide array of applications, prompting new business practices. A number of efforts have been recently undertaken to address the fundamental challenges to established legal concepts posed by these technological advances. All these efforts march forward grappling with a similar set of substantive issues, including what actions should the law recognize for a transferee to acquire a digital asset, such as Bitcoin. This article identifies the appropriate form in which commercial law should be expressed, including rules and standards. It identifies decentralized legislative solutions embedded in the U.C.C., analyzes how they have supported the growth of systems for the holding and transfers of various types of electronic records, and then applies the relevant solutions to particular issues concerning the use of digital assets, defined as controllable electronic records, in commercial transactions (...).
Abstract: The author identifies two ways in which value conflicts can be solved in the area of public commercial law and proves that the method of weighing values and finding a compromise solution is predominant because of the strong politicization of public commercial law and the need to respond to dynamic changes in the economy. He also makes other suggestions on the values present in public commercial law and raises issues, among others, of Europeanisation of law and the impact of European Union law on the resolution of value conflicts, as well as the problems of economization of law and judicial review of decisions that are carried out in conditions of strong politicization.
Abstract: This paper discusses the development of commercial law in Latvia since the country’s accession to the European Union. Commercial law existed in Latvia in advance of World War II, but since the restoration of independence it has achieved a new level of development with the adoption of the Commercial Law. Latvia’s desire to join the EU was an important stimulus for establishing commercial law, and the accession in 2004 is, therefore, a good point of reference in evaluating the development of such law. European Union law continues to have a substantial influence on Latvian commercial law. The author also has reviewed prospects for the future of commercial law in Latvia.
Abstract: This article analyses the particular role played by soft law instruments (such as codes of corporate governance, codes of conduct, model law and other non-binding instruments) in sharping the legal framework applicable to European and American companies. It concludes that soft law is a very popular and successful girl nowadays, for legitimate reasons, but one that brings about a series of concerns as well. This article finds that soft law instruments upset the traditional hierarchy of sources of law and the distinction between civil law and common law countries. It also observes that soft law converges, and, in turn, provokes further convergence of the legal framework. Finally, it exemplifies (and criticizes) instances of transformation of soft law into hard law, accompanied by a general phenomenon of hardening of the legal framework, including because instruments sometimes labelled ‘soft law’ are in reality closer in effect to hard law. soft law, company law, corporate governance codes, codes of conduct, directives, regulations, recommendations, green papers, comply or explain, EMCA, MBCA, ALI Principles
Abstract: European Company Law, a European Union (EU)-level company law (as ‘federal policy’), has passed the 50-year mark these years. Twenty-five of those years were dominated by a market function approach, the ‘black-box’ approach, where the company was seen from outside and guaranteeing necessary information for those outside the corporation, rational information users (namely long-term creditors and investors), was paramount. A transformation away from this approach began some 30 years ago; the last 20 years were dominated, first, by an approach that strongly increased participation and true multiple ‘voices’ in companies—as an approach meant to empower and heat up discussion, it can be termed the ‘red-box’ approach. This is an approach where more structural information and empowerment took place, and relations within the company were more in the focus of the legislature as well. The advent of new economic sociology could also be sensed, as the EU became more of a political Union or the concept of a competition of legislatures became a potential reality, such as with Centros (...).
Online journal articles – You can access a broad collection of e-articles through our Ebscohost search engine on contract law, commercial law and company law or via our EP Library Catalogue on contract law, commercial law and company law.
If you are unable to access the article you need, please contact us and we will get it for you as soon as possible.
| Data Protection Notice | Cookie Policy & Inventory |
 |
 |
 |
Journals on all devices |
Books, articles, EPRS publications & more |
Newspapers on all devices |