Overview

In July 2010, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship published a Green Paper on options for a “European contract law”. The most radical of the options outlined is a wholesale harmonisation of civil law in Europe.

This option would involve every country within the EU abandoning its national law and instead adopting a new European civil code (ie not just contract law). Politically, however, momentum appears to have gathered behind what is being described, by the Commission, as a more proportionate response: creating a brand new European contract law, one that exists in addition to all current national laws of contract – the so-called “28th regime”.

In this article, Allen & Overy explores the proposals and assesses the impact of plans for a new European contract law on commercial organisations and practitioners across Europe.

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