Published by De Gruyter

Volume 9 Issue 3

Issue of European Review of Contract Law

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available September 1, 2013

Masthead

Page range: i-iv

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September 1, 2013

European Dimensions of Residential Tenancy Law

Christoph U. Schmid, Jason R. Dinse

Page range: 201-220

Abstract

Although one third of European citizens depend on rental housing, its legal regulation in residential tenancy law constitutes a nearly blank space in comparative and European Union law. This is due to its national character, its perceived political nature and its embeddedness in widely diverging national housing policies. At the same time, however, EU law and policies from other fields do affect tenancy law significantly, albeit indirectly and with little visibility. The present contribution tries in a first step to take stock of these influences, which range from social policy, competition law, consumer and contract law, conflict of laws, anti-discrimination and environmental law to the European Convention of Human Rights. On this basis, the potential for a European contribution to the field is examined in a second step. As regards European instruments, this contribution advises against legal harmonisation but recommends the extension of the existing open method of coordination mechanism in social policy to tenancy law. At the substantive level, a legal principle of ‘socio-economic balance’ is sketched out. This means that national legislators, regulators and judges should design viable compromise solutions taking into account party interests as well as macroeconomic and social criteria. Zusammenfassung Obwohl ungefähr ein Drittel aller europäischen Bürger auf gemieteten Wohnraum angewiesen ist, stellt das Mietrecht in Rechtsvergleichung und Europarecht ein noch weitgehend unerforschtes Terrain dar. Dies dürfte auf seinen nationalen Charakter, seine politische Prägung und seine Einbettung in ganz verschiedene nationale Wohnungspolitiken zurückzuführen sein. Gleichzeitig wirken europäisches Recht und EU-Politiken aus anderen Bereichen, wiewohl indirekt und wenig sichtbar, in erheblichem Umfang auf das Mietrecht ein. Der vorliegende Beitrag versucht in einem ersten Schritt, eine Übersicht zu diesen Einwirkungen zu erarbeiten. Diese reichen von der Sozialpolitik über das Wettbewerbs-, Verbraucher-, Vertrags-, Antidiskriminierungs- und Umweltrecht bis hin zur Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird in einem zweiten Schritt das Potential eines möglichen europäischen Beitrags zum Mietrecht untersucht. Was die hierfür in Frage kommenden Handlungsformen der EU anlangt, spricht sich dieser Beitrag gegen eine Rechtsangleichung aus und empfiehlt stattdessen die Erstreckung der sog. offenen Koordinationsmethode aus dem Bereich der Sozialpolitik ins Mietrecht. Auf materiellrechtlicher Ebene wird das Prinzip des „sozio-ökonomischen Ausgleichs“ zur Diskussion gestellt. Danach sollten nationale Gesetzgeber, Regulierungsbehörden und Richter funktionsfähige Kompromisse ausarbeiten, die die Parteiinteressen ebenso wie makroökonomische und soziale Kriterien berücksichtigen.

September 1, 2013

Contract without numbers and without adjectives. Beyond the consumer and the weak enterprise

Giuseppe Vettori

Page range: 221-248

Abstract

The essay examines the law of contract under the current system of Italian and European sources. Traditional categories based on the qualities of contractors (consumers, customers, weak companies) have difficulty in sorting out the new phenomena; rather, we need a new method to regulate contracts, governed by a set of sources from which to draw elements of compliance with the rule and new forms of protection, through an activity of deconstruction and innovation that Italian Courts have already begun, using some instruments in particular. They have used the legal concepts of ‘concrete cause’ and a conflict with mandatory rules, as instruments for the control of legality and validity. They have used constitutionally guaranteed rights and duties, as limits to contractual freedom. Finally, they have used good faith as a criterion of liability in the assessment of behaviour both pre- and post-contract signature, with an autonomous function with respect to the assessment of contract validity. Résumé Cet article examine le droit des contrats à travers le système actuel des sources italiennes et européennes. Les catégories traditionnelles fondées sur les qualités des contractants (consommateurs, clients, sociétés faibles) peinent à répondre aux nouveaux phénomènes; nous avons plutôt besoin d’une nouvelle méthode pour réguler les contrats, régis par un ensemble de sources dont on puisse tirer des éléments de conformité avec la règle et de nouvelles formes de protection, à travers une activité de déconstruction et d’innovation que les tribunaux italiens ont déjà commencée, usant de certains instruments en particulier. Ils ont utilisé les concepts juridiques de “cause concrète” et un conflit avec des règles impératives comme instruments pour le contrôle de légalité et de validité. Ils ont utilisé des droits et devoirs constitutionnellement garantis comme limites à la liberté contractuelle. Finalement, ils ont utilisé la bonne foi comme un critère de responsabilité dans l’appréciation du comportement pre- et post-contractuel, avec une fonction autonome en ce qui concerne l’appréciation de la validité du contrat. Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag betrachtet das Vertragsrecht in dem Zuschnitt, wie er sich auf Grund italienischer und Europäischer Rechtsgrundlagen ergibt. Herkömmliche Ansätze, die auf die Kategorie des jeweiligen Vertragsschließenden abstellen (Verbraucher, Kunden, KMUs), können häufig schwer Phänomene der heutigen Welt adäquat erfassen. Der Ansatz für eine Regulierung des Vertragsrechts muss angesichts der Vielfältigkeit vielmehr in der Art eines beweglichen Systems auf ganz verschiedene Elemente rekurrieren: von Elementen der Compliance bis zu neuen Schutzformen, all dies in einem Prozess der Dekonstruktuion und Neufindung, die gerade im italienischen Recht derzeit auch in den Entscheidungen der höchsten Gericht durchaus bereits im Gange ist. Dazu haben sie das Konzept einer „konkreten casua“ genutzt ebenso wie eine subtilen Umgang mit dem zwingenden Recht, sowohl in Fragen der Rechtswidrigkeit als auch der Wirksamkeit. Hierfür haben sie auf verfassungsmäßig garantierte Rechte und Pflichten zurückgegriffen, um die Vertragsfreiheit flexibel zu regulieren und beschränken. Insbesondere hat sich auch eine starke Rechtsprechung zu Treu und Glauben entwickelt, um prä- und postkontraktuelles Verhalten zu beurteilen – ganz unabhängig von Wirksamkeitsfragen.

September 1, 2013

European Community Legislation and Actions

Rossella Delfino

Page range: 249-252

Abstract

NB: This section presents a series of non legislative actions and legislative acts directly or indirectly linked to contract law, which were adopted at European level between mid-April and mid July 2013.

September 1, 2013

The Apple Case: The Commencement of Pan-European Battle Against Unfair Commercial Practices

Mateja Djurovic

Page range: 253-266

September 1, 2013

The Bankinter Case on MIFID Regulation and Contract Law

Stefan Grundmann

Page range: 267-280

September 1, 2013

CISG v Regional Sales Law Unification: With a Focus on the New Common European Sales Law [ed by Ulrich Magnus]

Colin Moore

Page range: 281-286

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.