Published by De Gruyter

Volume 18 Issue 2

Issue of European Review of Contract Law

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available June 13, 2022

Editorial

June 15, 2022

Articles

June 15, 2022

Intimate Contracts and Choice Theory

Hanoch Dagan

Page range: 104-126

Abstract

Contract is one of the key tools liberal law employs in the service of its core mission of enhancing people’s autonomy, and choice theory conceptualizes this task as contract’s telos. It thus prescribes three principles – proactive facilitation, regard for the future self, and relational justice – for guiding the legal constitution of contract law in all spheres of human interaction. Spousal contracts are no exception. Thus, the law governing intimate agreements both allows people to adjust the default rules governing their marital estates and provides people off-the-shelf options for structuring their interpersonal interaction as spouses. In turn, the law of marital contracts ensures that free exit from marriage is, as it should be, immutable. Finally, relational justice guides, albeit still imperfectly, both law’s normative defaults for marital contracts and the rules that govern premarital, marital, and cohabitation agreements.

Open Access June 15, 2022

Contracts and Equality: The Dangers of Non-disclosure Agreements in English Law

Catharine MacMillan

Page range: 127-158

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Abstract

This paper is concerned with the interaction between the principle of equal treatment and non-disclosure agreements in English law. The common use of non-disclosure agreements (also referred to as ‘confidentiality clauses’ or ‘gagging clauses’) as a term in contracts settling possible claims in which harassment or discrimination were alleged came to public prominence in England following the #MeToo movement. There has, though, been little consideration of the enforceability of these non-disclosure agreements as a matter of contract law and the impact of non-disclosure agreements upon equality. This paper examines the legal enforceability of these agreements as a matter of English contract law. It is argued that non-disclosure agreements, designed to obtain silence, work to impede the equality of women. English contract law provides few protections from the potential abuse that can arise from non-disclosure agreements.

Open Access June 15, 2022

Agreements in European Family Law – The Findings, Theoretical Assessments and Proposals of the Commission on European Family Law (CEFL)

Cristina González Beilfuss

Page range: 159-174

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Abstract

This paper presents the findings, theoretical assessments and proposals made by the Commission on European Family Law in its Principles on European Family law in connection to agreements in family matters. It discusses, in particular, whether proposals were made on the basis of the common core of the jurisdictions surveyed or rely on a better law approach.

June 15, 2022

Spousal Agreements and Patriarchal Bargains: A Wife’s Guarantee of Her Husband’s Business Debts

Orit Gan

Page range: 175-199

Abstract

This Article uses the term patriarchal bargain in order to analyze spousal agreements. In her canonical article Deniz Kandiyoti has coined the term patriarchal bargain in order to describe how women negotiate with patriarchy and strategize under the constraints of male domination. Her seminal work has been highly influential in sociology and gender studies. However, legal scholarship has paid little attention to her work. This Article seeks to bridge this gap and explores how women bargain in the shadow of patriarchy. Using a European courts’ decision as an example, this article adds the patriarchal context of spousal agreements. This social context enriches our understanding of spousal agreements and deepens our understanding of contracting under conditions of social inequalities.

EU Legislation

June 15, 2022

European Union Legislation and Actions

Rossella Delfino

Page range: 200-203

About this journal

This Journal deals with contract law and serves as a pan-European platform for discussion and analysis. The concept of a European Contract Law is still rather recent: the phrase was first coined in the 1990s. Since the early 2000s when this journal was created, European Contract Law has come to encompass an increasingly comprehensive body of law. There were three driving forces behind this development: the EC harmonisation of laws in the area of the internal market, a generally increased interest in comparative law discussions in contract law, and the European Commission’s Communication on European Contract Law, the Commission’s Action Plan and the Common Frame of Reference process. These developments brought about a changed climate of discussion. The foundations of contract law, examined from many perspectives and in view of various national legal systems and an increasing number of disciplines, are currently being discussed in great detail in the European arena. In 10 years contract law may be the first area of European private law to be regulated in a fully fleshed out European Code.

European Contract Law comprises diverse areas of the law such as sales, standard contract terms, distribution chains, marketing practices, research and development agreements, contract law copyright aspects, financial and investment services contracts, insurance contracts and e-commerce as well as non-discrimination within and beyond labour law and more generally, important aspects of labour contracts and other symbiotic contracts.

The importance and breadth of the field and the methods and questions involved are such that ERCL has established itself as the specialised European journal in this area. Since 2004 the standard of information and discussions on this platform have been consolidated: ERCL discusses the body of law in three sections: articles, case law, and literature on EC Contract Law. This takes place mainly in book reviews and, in addition, contains short sections on the most recent EC legislation, sectoral developments, national developments and other news. The Review focuses on existing law at the EC level and all rules influencing the formation, content and execution of contracts from default rules to regulation, from marketing aspects to the content of contracts, from consumer (and also labour) law to general contract law. The Review is open to a variety of approaches and provides the opportunity to read traditional 'dogmatic' explanations of the upcoming and existing law, assessments through comparative law studies as well as economic analysis and discussions of the philosophical foundations and major structural features. The Review is and has been the site of intense discussion of proposals for codification or, more generally, systemisation and comprehensive development of contract law at the EC level. The European Contract Law Code is too realistic an option and much too important not to be thoroughly discussed as transparently as possible with as many competing ideas and approaches as possible. Several special issues have followed this process in great detail. The journal is meant to help in establishing a functional market of ideas in one of the core areas of private law and one of the most important areas of European private law. ERCL is the journal covering this large body of law and the modern solutions to the problems encountered.

Volume 18 Issue 2

Issue of European Review of Contract Law

Frontmatter

Editorial

Intimate Contracts and Choice Theory

Abstract

Contracts and Equality: The Dangers of Non-disclosure Agreements in English Law

Abstract

Agreements in European Family Law – The Findings, Theoretical Assessments and Proposals of the Commission on European Family Law (CEFL)

Abstract

Spousal Agreements and Patriarchal Bargains: A Wife’s Guarantee of Her Husband’s Business Debts

Abstract

European Union Legislation and Actions