In its case law the Court of Justice of the European Union has acknowledged general principles of EU law, which have a constitutional status. In addition the Court of Justice has also recognised 'general principles of civil law', relying upon values which are traditionally rooted in the domain of private law.The pervasive use of principles, both in the case law of the Court of Justice and in other EU projects of 'soft' and 'hard' law, challenges legal scholarship. Although the concepts of principles and rules have been widely discussed within the context of national legal orders, they need to be rethought at the European level, because the traditional view of a principle does not fit the European Union's constitutional architecture. This also applies to the general principles of civil law, for instance good faith. They also have to be redefined to be consistent with the European Union's legal order.The contributions in this book examine EU general principles and their distinction from rules both within the context of the European Union as well as of the Member States. Moreover, they focus on the relevance of EU general principles for contract law and of principles of civil law for a European contract law.

The reservation of title clause plays an important role in contemporary trade. Financially, the reservation of title clause is a cheap and simple form of credit granted by the seller without the involvement of a third party. Legally, the reservation of title clause is more complicated, as it constitutes a transfer of title under a condition precedent; the seller remains the owner of the asset sold until the full price is paid. The rules of substantive law relating to the reservation of title clause differ from country to country. Uniform or harmonized rules of substantive law - or even of private international law - are wanting. In this book, submitted as a doctoral thesis to the European University Institute, Department of Law, Florence, Italy, Ms Jacobien W. Rutgers addresses the question as to the problems which may arise if a reservation of title clause is employed within international transactions, especially transactions between Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and in which mode a solution can be found. The author seeks the solution in private international law, since other means of addressing the problem, such as harmonization and unification of substantive law rules, have failed so far. The book is strong in the analysis of the various conflict of laws solutions and pioneering in how it deals with the question of the extent to which the rules of private international law in this field must be in compliance with European law.

This is the third edition of the widely acclaimed and successful casebook on contract in the Ius Commune series, developed to be used throughout Europe and beyond by anyone who teaches, learns or practises law with a comparative or European perspective. The book contains leading cases, legislation and other materials from English, French and German law as the main representatives of the legal traditions within Europe, as well as EU legislation and case law and extracts from the Principles of European Contract Law. Comparisons are also made to other international restatements such as the Vienna Sales Convention, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Draft Common Frame of Reference and so on. Materials are chosen and ordered so as to foster comparative study, complemented with annotations and comparative overviews prepared by a multinational team. The third edition includes many new developments at the EU level (including the ill-fated proposal for a Common European Sales Law and further developments linked to the digital single market) and in national laws, in particular the major reform of the French Code civil in 2016 and 2018, the UK's Consumer Rights Act 2015 and new cases. The principal subjects covered in this book include: An overview of EU legislation and of soft law principles, and their interrelation with national law The distinctions between contract and property, tort and restitution Formation and pre-contractual liability Validity, including duties of disclosure Interpretation and contents; performance and non-performance Remedies Supervening events Third parties.