The Work of the Lando-Commission from an Alternative Viewpoint

Abstract

The contribution analyses the project of a group of legal scholars who have developed a body of common European principles of contract law in a private initiative. The prevailing idea was that a Common Market requires a uniform legal infrastructure, especially of contract law, as the existing plurality of national contract laws might impede the functioning of the Internal Market. But the project of the Lando-Commission hides more complex features. The social and economic conditions that made possible the 19th century formal codifications have to a large extent changed. Private law as part of the European multi-level-system is forced to react to the regulatory marked-related interventions of European economic legislation. Simultaneously, in the wake of the globalisation of the economy, national codifications have to accommodate new categories of contracts as well as the autonomous transnational law of the business community (lex mercatoria) which has emerged beyond the national legal systems. In this context, the work of the Lando-Commission shall be conceived as an optional system, sustaining the actors in this multi level process. Through a transnational judicial dialogue, these principles might become a useful tool for co-ordination among the fragmented EC directives, international uniform law and traditional private law.