Harmonisation Of Contract Law Research Articles

Analysis of the harmonization of contract law Ukraine with the law of the European Union

The introduction of European norms into national legislation can cause certain problems and disagreements.The reasons that can lead to such disagreements, which are mentioned in the statement of the problem, are primarily cultural and historical differences. Countries have their own cultural and historical characteristics that affect their legal systems. European norms may not always take these differences into account, which may lead to differences in the interpretation and application of the law.The reason is the needs and peculiarities of the national economy, because each country has its own economic structure and needs. European norms may not take into account the specifics of the national economy, which may lead to disagreements and cause difficulties in the implementation of certain provisions.European norms may be formulated ambiguously or leave certain aspects uncertain. This can lead to differences in the interpretation and application of the law, as well as to different approaches in court decisions, which is legal ambiguity.Time constraints and the accelerated process of harmonization are also one of the reasons due to differences between Ukrainian and European law. The implementation of European norms can take place at a fast pace, which can make it difficult to adapt and ensure full compliance with national legislation. This can lead to ambiguities and inappropriateness in the legal system.And integration with European law can create challenges in ensuring a unified mechanism for control and dispute resolution. Differences in the interpretation and application of European norms can create problems in resolving disputes between the parties. Therefore, the lack of a single control mechanism is also a reason.Ukrainian contract law needs legislative adaptation. After all, the implementation of European norms requires significant changes in national legislation. This can cause difficulties and require time and resources to implement the necessary reforms.One of the reasons is the lack of full compliance. Ukraine may have difficulties in achieving full compliance with European norms due to various factors, such as backwardness in the development of the legal system, corruption, insufficient legal culture, etc. This can lead to unresolved issues and disagreements with European law.The next reason is the implementation of requirements and standards. Harmonization of contract law with European norms requires the introduction of new requirements and standards. This can be a challenge for government bodies, lawyers, courts and other participants of the legal system, who must familiarize themselves with the new rules, acquire the necessary skills and abilities to apply them.Harmonization of contract law to European standards may also require significant financial costs. This is due to the need for reforms, training of specialists, development and implementation of new laws and legal instruments. The government and other stakeholders must commit sufficient resources to ensure successful harmonization, which is a challenge.The reason for the discrepancy between domestic and European law is the interaction with other branches of law. Harmonization of contract law can affect other areas of law, such as economic, civil and labor law.Changes in one area may necessitate changes in the corresponding areas, which may cause complications and disagreements in their interaction.Harmonization of contract law requires broad public support and involvement. This means the need to inform citizens, businesses and other interested parties about the changes, hold consultations and take into account their opinions and suggestions. Support and involvement of society is needed. Despite these challenges, the harmonization of contract law of Ukraine with European law remains important and necessary. This will contribute to the creation of a single legal space, increased protection of the rights of citizens and enterprises, development of trade and investments, and improvement of justice.However, it is important to take into account the specificities and needs of the country when implementing European norms, ensuring a balance between global standards and national realities.

The impact of European law on national legislation and the need to harmonize contract law of Ukraine

The practical implementation of the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with European law includes harmonization of legislative acts, implementation of European standards, institutional reforms, information campaign and education, international cooperation, creation of specialized bodies, strengthening of legal education and training, monitoring and evaluation of implementation. The practical implementation of harmonization contributes to the creation of a consistent and modern legal system, ensures the protection of citizens’ rights, promotes economic development and promotes international cooperation.In general, the harmonization of contract law of Ukraine with European law is an urgent task that contributes to the development of the economy, increased protection of the rights and interests of citizens and enterprises, improvement of the legal system and international cooperation. The relevance of harmonizing Ukrainian contract law with European law arises for several key reasons, this is: integration with the European Union, promotion of economic development, protection of rights and interests of citizens and enterprises, promotion of international cooperation.Harmonization of contract law of Ukraine with European law contributes to the improvement of cooperation with European countries and other countries that adopt European standards. This opens up new opportunities for trade, investment and cultural exchange, etc.Harmonization of contract law refers to the process of alignment and unification of norms and principles relating to the conclusion, performance and termination of contracts, with the aim of ensuring their mutual compatibility and the implementation of generally accepted standards in this area.Harmonization of contract law is usually aimed at creating a single legal space where different countries or regions have common norms and rules governing contractual relations. This allows for equal conditions for all market participants, increases transparency and predictability, reduces risks and increases trust between parties.Harmonization can be achieved by harmonizing and unifying national laws and regulations, or by adopting international treaties, conventions or recommendations that become binding on participating countries.Harmonization of contract law contributes to the creation of a favorable environment for business and international trade, simplifies the crossing of borders and the implementation of international transactions. It also helps to avoid disagreements and contradictions in legal regulation, ensuring stability and predictability of legal relations.

Principles of Asian Contract Law at the Crossroads of Standardization and Legal Pluralism

AbstractThe Principles of Asian Contract Law (PACL) are the most recent addition to the series of uniform laws regarding transnational commercial contracts. This time, the harmonization initiative must address the problem of a great variety of legal traditions, all of which are quite difficult to reconcile. The author focuses on the object and objectives of the PACL by reconsidering the notion of “Asian law” and the alleged cultural neutrality of contract law as a legal discipline. The paper argues that the PACL project lacks clarity. Its ambitious objectives, while apparently intelligible, fail to produce the desired results in their entirety: the Asian regional harmonization of contract law turns out to resemble its occidental forerunners. The study goes beyond the traditional comparative law. It explores the model law (in the making) in a broader context of legal policy, parallel regional private-law-making efforts in the field of contract law as well as in the context of legal globalization.

The textual layers of European contract law

The article traces the historical stages and main milestones of the process of harmonization and attempts to unify European contract law. Its first stage lasted from 1980 to 2015, marked by the appearance of many texts of a generalizing nature, designed to become the basis for the development of uniform contract law in the EU, and smoothly flowed into one another forming various conceptual layers of the emerging general contract law of Europe. The author identifies 10 different layers of the main text prepared by various Commissions and Working Groups in the corpus of texts accumulated during the process of developing model rules of European contract law. Taking into account the different versions of these texts, there are also 18 textual layers, to which 13 important EU directives and at least 6 international conventions or draft conventions concerning the general part of contract law and the law of sale of goods or certain aspects of these areas should be added. It is also noted that there are competing national projects that are marginal in relation to the European mainstream, which should also be taken into account. Political and other reasons for the failure of certain drafts are explained. Their advantages, defects and features are considered. In the process of describing the history of the rise and fall of the idea of uniform contract law in Europe at the recently completed first stage of its implementation, the author analyzes the reasons for the failure of this process and in conclusion provides a brief description of the international research project in which he was a participant. This project led to the publication in the summer of 2018 of comprehensive “Commentaries on European Contract Laws”, which can give a “second wind” to the trends of harmonization of contract law in the EU and beyond.

Harmonization of Contract Law in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia: What Can Be Learned from the CISG and the ECL Experience?

This paper examines the pending initiative for harmonization of contract law in Eastern and South-Eastern Asian jurisdictions from the perspectives of the European Contract Law (ECL) and the Vienna Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG). The idea behind the paper is that experiences, both positive and negative ones, gained from these two examples of harmonization of contract law may be very beneficial for the Asian initiative. Learning about the ECL and the CISG enables a better and more complete understanding of the contract law harmonization process. In particular, the analysis of these two examples show all the different problems, challenges and issues that harmonization of contract law brings which need always to be taken into consideration and the necessary conditions which need to be fulfilled in order to achieve a high level of harmonization in reality. Finally, this paper comes up with some of the suggestions that should be taken into consideration by the relevant stakeholders while discussing on how to proceed further with the harmonization of contract law in Asia.

Harmonisation Projects: Lessons from the European Experience?

In recent years a number of different projects of harmonisation of private law, and in particular contract law, have been developed at both the regional level and the international level. In Europe for twenty-five years efforts were made to work out a possible model for the harmonisation of contract law: by the end of 2014 this appeared not to have succeeded, but there are lasting results of the process which had a significant influence in the process of the reform of the law of contract in France in 2016. This illustrates the value which such projects can have, and can provide a lesson for other regions such as Latin America.

Fuerza obligatoria y función social del contrato: Un estado de la cuestión en Brasil y Chile

This work presents contract law’s transit in the Latin American legal context. Despite the nineteenth-century codifications which ostensibly subscribed to individualistic parameters, with which our modern contract law was designed, the region’s contemporary codification has distanced itself from this manner of comprehending the contract, its legal bases and purposes, consolidating itself with exigencies of sociability and other social principles This is particularly analyzed from the standpoint of the embodiment of the social role that contracts have in today’s Brazilian legislation, which poses difficulties to the effectiveness of contracts’ binding force, and other contractual principles. How this phenomenon reveals the complexity of contract law is presented herein, posing an immediate challenge for the efforts towards harmonization of contract law in Latin America, considering a common basis.

Глобализация мировой торговли через призму Принципов международных коммерческих договоров УНИДРУА

This paper is concerned with the role of the UNIDROIT Principles in the processes of legal globalization. The central argument is that this non-State codification does not have a legal binding nature, but this document which covers the rules of conduct and dispute settlement, no doubt, contributed to the acceleration of globalization of world trade. It analyses the revision of the UNIDROIT Principles since 1994 to the current version of 2010 and from the stand point of strengthening of the general approaches in legal regulation and extension of the scope of their application. The UNIDROIT Principles may have impact on the reform of the national legislation of various countries, thus, facilitating the process of harmonization of Contract Law. At the same time it is noted that many of the provisions of the national legislation, and, in particular, the German Civil Code, may serve as the basis for progressive development of the mentioned non-state codification. This set of unified rules may be used as an instrument for the interpretation of the terms enshrined in international commercial contracts.

Les objectifs de l’harmonisation du droit des contrats – Deux projets OHADA et les Principes OHADAC: objectifs contrastés

Abstract: The trend towards harmonization of contract law is increasingly developing, but orientations may be very different, due not only to the respective contexts, but also to the nature of objectives pursued. The present essay describes and compares three recent harmonization projects, two in the African context of the Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires (OHADA), the third one initiated by the Organisation pour l’harmonisation du droit des affaires dans la Caraïbe (OHADAC). The first African project, as requested by the Council of Ministers of OHADA, took strong inspiration from the UNIDROIT Principles, as the intention was to elaborate a modern instrument apt to attract investors. This project, however, has not been adopted, in particular because of a marked reluctance to depart from the French legal tradition, which is prevailing in most (but not all) member States. An alternative project, based on a private initiative, is in the process of being elaborated, with the view to remain within the dominant legal tradition and to avoid disorienting practitioners. As to the project that has just been prepared in the framework of OHADAC, it takes much inspiration from existing uniform law instruments, including the UNIDROIT Principles. At the same time, it is mainly concerned not to retain rules which could appear to be unacceptable in certain parts of a region where the legal systems are very diverse.

The harmonization of contract law with the law of the European Union: With the special review on the internet sale

The topic of this paper is the harmonization of Contract Law, as a process which represent, on the one hand, a fundamental presupposition for creation of the single market in Europe, and on the other hand, a necessary condition for Serbia's membership in it. First, the author will try to give the answer to some common questions which concerning the concept, importance and challenges of the harmonization of contract law. About, the degree of harmonization of contract law in our country, the regulations that have been passed and the problems that arise in practice, will be outlined, but only in the light of a narrow field of contract law - internet sales. Despite resistance and suspicion on which she is encountering in our country, buying over the internet is a necessity imposed by the new information age, which offers a number of advantages and benefits compared to traditional sales. Shopping over the Internet is the fastest and cheapest way to buy a product, but also the most profitable forms of trade because of the simplicity and low cost. Serbia has passed a series of laws and other regulations that follow the requirements and standards of the European Union. However, passing legislation, it is not enough, but their effective implementation and application by the citizens and authorities , it is necessary to educate merchants, and also the consumers themselves in order to spread awareness about the importance and benefits of e-commerce.

Harmonization of contract law in Latin America: past and present initiatives

This article provides a description of the past and current initiatives on the harmonization of contract law in Latin America. Private international law instruments of unification are described, providing a summary of the regional Latin American integration efforts and its impact on the harmonization of private law. The article also examines the most recent academic initiative of harmonization — the project for the drafting of the Principles of Latin American Contract Law.

Policy and Politics in Contract Law Reform in Japan

Japan is proceeding apace with its first-ever comprehensive overhaul of the contract law provisions in the Civil Code, originally enacted in 1896 with strong influence from German law. Interim recommendations were published in February 2013, after almost three and a half years of official law reform deliberations within the Ministry of Justice's Legislative Council, and amendments may be introduced into Parliament by the end of 2014. Most of the interim recommendations track those from a semi-private “Reform Commission” published in 2009, after 260 meetings since 2006 and mainly involving legal academics. Yet, as explained in the first half of this paper, tensions remain in the underlying policy behind these contract law reform proposals. Despite shifts towards giving greater priority to the parties’ agreement, partly influenced by international contract law instruments, some proposals envisage greater protection for weaker parties or leave considerable discretion to judges. Two remarkable changes of government, in 2009 and 2012, have not impacted significantly on this major law reform project in Japan. Far more important than such “macro-politics” has been “micro-politics”. The second half of this paper therefore presents an interest group analysis of the Civil Code reform process. Key academics -- assisted by one legal publisher in particular -- have been able to mobilise a powerful “bureaucratic coalition”, comprising Ministry of Justice officials and judges seconded by the Supreme Court of Japan, despite pockets of opposition from other academics, smaller law firms and certain business sectors. This analysis therefore presents some significant parallels with recent contract law reform initiatives and debates within the European Union. Very different concatenations of interest groups arguably exist in common law jurisdictions such as the US (where major Uniform Commercial Code reforms have foundered) or Australia (where the government commenced in 2012 a consultation into whether and how to reform contract law). Comprehensive reform in those jurisdictions therefore seems unlikely, reducing the potential for the world-wide harmonisation of contract law. A shorter version of this paper is adapted for Maurice Adams and Dirk Thilbaut (eds) The Method and Culture of Comparative Law, Hart, 2014.

Tracing Trajectories in Contract Law Theory: Form in Anglo-New Zealand Law, Substance in Japan and the United States

This article presents a detailed comparative history of 20th century contract law theory development primarily across four countries, drawing implications for recent law reform initiatives. It extends the framework initially proposed by Atiyah and Summers, which emphasised how the English legal system prefers greater formal reasoning in legal doctrine as well as various supporting institutions, compared to the more open-textured substantive reasoning patterns and institutions characteristic of the United States. New Zealand arguably retains strong affinities with England, whereas Japan shares many similarities with the US – in contract law theory development generally, as well as in discrete areas of contract law (analysed in other specific studies). This persistent disjuncture helps explain why England still refuses to accede to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (adopted by all other major trading nations, including the US and Japan), and why practitioners in other countries that have adopted the Convention – yet which follow the English law tradition, such as New Zealand but also Australia – still experience greater difficulty in applying the Convention. In addition, large-scale contract law reform including a closer alignment with such international instruments, as tentatively proposed by the Australian federal government in April 2012, faces greater obstacles in the Anglo-Commonwealth legal tradition compared to comprehensive reform initiatives that are already well advanced in Japan. More generally, the different trajectories in contract law theory development highlighted in this article call for caution about the prospects for world-wide or even regional unification or harmonisation of contract law.

Intention to Create Legal Relations and the Reform of Contract Law: A Conservative Approach in the Modern Global Era

This paper is partially to refute the submissions by Gulati’s article recently published on Beijing Law Review which proposes abandoning the requirement of proving intention to create legal relations for the formation of an enforceable contract. After a critical analysis of the abandonists’ arguments, this paper argues that intention to create legal relations is the “marrow of contractual relationships” and the arguments for abandoning such a requirement because of the existence of consideration and/or offer and acceptance as test(s) of contractual enforceability is untenable and unconvincing. Consideration and/or offer and acceptance may be evidence of serious intention to be bound somehow but unnecessary intention to be bound legally. For a number of reasons, the doctrine of consideration is very unlikely to work any better than the intention to create legal relations test. If a test of contractual enforceability must be abandoned, that should be the doctrine of consideration rather than the intention to create legal relations. This paper compares the current positions of some common law jurisdictions, upholds the needs of stability, consistency, and the harmonisation of contract law in the modern global era, and proposes a conservative approach of contract law reform regarding the intention requirement and the related presumptions, that is, all common law jurisdictions should “go back” to the orthodox English position.

Introduction to special issue: Harmonisation of contract law: an economic and behavioural perspective

The recent publication of the Draft Common Frame of Reference of European Private Law (DCFR) and the Feasibility Study of the Expert Group on European Contract Law have given even more impetus to the debate about a harmonised European contract law than existed before. While the idea of a harmonised contract law for the European Union is widely discussed among academics since at least a decade, it is now also part of a political discussion in which both the European institutions and the member states are playing an increasingly important role. The debate about harmonisation of contract law is still primarily informed by legal arguments. What is often missing is a more broad-ranging perspective that opens up the discussion to arguments from the fields of economics and behavioral science. This state of affairs is to be criticised: in particular when it comes to the questions of the need for and the optimal design of a European contract law,

Green Paper on Policy Options for Progress Towards a European Contract Law for Consumers and Businesses What do we want?

Although based on academic background and literature, my answer to the questions posed by the European Commission turns out to be rather political as from my point of view it is impossible to address those questions in a purely technical way. Although there are other, probably more relevant, obstacles to the internal market, I consider that there is enough evidence to assume that different legislation is an obstacle well worth looking at. I begin with the discussion of goals, strictly connected to the scope of application, and move to the debate on formal/informal harmonisation of contract law. As on one side there is not enough evaluation to sustain solidly that harmonisation or unification is better that diversity that meets local preferences, and on the other side liberty, subsidiarity and proportionality claim for parties' freedom to opt for their better solution, I support the view that Member States must be able to maintain their internal law but at the same time must wide the parties' scope of options with the approval of a Regulation on European contract law. In any case, a lot of assessment should still take place.

The Effect of Rule Determinacy on Deciding Contract Disputes: Experimental Data and Network Simulation

This paper reports the results of an experiment in which 107 law students who had completed their first year (including a course on Contracts) were asked to decide one of 6 contract law disputes. The experiment was designed to replicate and extend earlier experiments. The disputes were based on Australian appellate cases resulting in 2:1 majority decisions. Three of them were classified as relatively ‘easier’ and 3 as relatively ‘harder’ to decide, based on the earlier experiments. The participants were instructed to make their decisions using a statement of relevant law drawn from either Australian case law or the draft Australian Contract Code published by the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 1992. We sought to contrast two plausible points on the spectrum of ‘detailed rules’ to ‘broad rules’ that were as far apart as possible. At 4 points in the decision process (after reading the facts, after reading the law, after formulating the arguments for each party and after their decision) the participants were asked to rate the importance of 15 facts drawn from the statement of facts. These facts had been classified by the researchers into 3 categories, based on their relative weight under both law models. In the extensive scholarly literature on ‘rule determinacy’ it is nearly universally assumed that detailed rules are more predictable than broad rules. It is also commonly asserted that a reason detailed rules are more certain is that they focus the necessary factual inquiry on a relatively small number of important facts, whereas broad rules lead decision makers to give greater importance to a relatively wider range of facts. Despite their importance, these assumptions have scarcely been tested empirically. This study contributes to that task. Our experimental results indicate that, contrary to conventional wisdom, broad rules are as predictable as detailed rules, and are more predictable in some cases. They confirm conventional wisdom on the focusing effect of detailed rules. But this effect was not associated with greater predictability. If anything, it seemed to make some cases needlessly unpredictable. This paper also reports our attempt to explore the assumed relationship between the scope of the factual inquiry and predictability of decisions, using a connectionist-network model to simulate the decision and fact importance rating results observed in each of the six cases used in our experiment. The model accounts for over 99% of the variance in our experimental data, using only 5 parameters for each case to account for the results of both law model groups (18 data points). Our results support the hypothesis that, again contrary to conventional wisdom, narrowing the factual inquiry reduced rather than increased predictability in all but one case. We explore the implications and limitations of our findings in the conclusion. Our interest in this topic arises from its relevance to the codification and international harmonization of contract law. Our results suggest that resistance to contract codes, in jurisdictions like Australia and the UK, based on their indeterminacy lacks an empirical foundation. They also suggest that a global contract code based on commonalities that can readily be discerned in existing contract codes, particularly at the level of broad rules, could be an effective instrument of contract regulation.

Protection of the Weaker Party in European Contract Law: Standardized and Individual Inferiority in Multi-level Private Law

Abstract: It is a permanent challenge to realize the freedom of contract objective effectively, rather than merely guaranteeing it formally. Indeed, nineteenth century private law already provided certain mechanisms to guarantee the protection of this ‘material’ freedom of contract. Meanwhile, a consensus has been reached on the need for a private law system that also provides real opportunities for self-determination. An example of this can be found in EU consumer law. Admittedly, this law is, for reasons of legal certainty, constrained both in personal and situational terms, and by certain formal requirements. However, the new rules against discrimination are dominated by approaches that focus strongly on the protection of the individual. They are supplemented by national provisions that in particular form a counterweight to certain individual weaknesses. The autonomy of national law in this field can be explained by the different traditions that underlie the ‘social’ contract law in the Member States. The differences are especially apparent in relation to public policy, the bona fide principle and the breach of an obligation before or at the time of contracting (culpa in contrahendo). They represent yet another argument against an undifferentiated leap from partial to full harmonization of contract law. Résumé: Appliquer effectivement le principe de la liberté contractuelle et non simplement lui accorder une garantie formelle constitue un défi permanent. En effet, le droit privé du 19e siècle incluait déjà des éléments garantissant la protection de cette liberté ‘matérielle’ des contrats. Depuis lors, un consensus a été atteint sur la nécessité, dans un système de droit privé, d’accorder également de réelles possibilités d’auto-détermination. On peut en trouver un exemple en matière de droit européen de la consommation. Il est admis que ce droit est restreint – pour des raisons de sécurité juridique – par la spécificité de la personne et de la situation données et qu’il est lié à des exigences formelles préalables. Cependant, les nouvelles règles anti-discriminatoires sont dominées par des approches qui visent clairement la protection de l’individu. Ces règles sont complétées par des dispositions nationales qui, en particulier, compensent les situations de faiblesse des individus. L’autonomie de la loi nationale peut s’expliquer par les différentes traditions concernant le droit ‘social’ des contrats dans les Etats membres. Des différences apparaissent spécialement en ce qui concerne l’intérêt général, la bonne foi ou la responsabilité précontractuelle (culpa in contrahendo). Elles constituent un autre argument s’opposant à l’évolution, indifférenciée, d’une harmonisation partielle vers une harmonisation complète du droit des contrats.

Interpretation Rules and Good Faith as Obstacles to the UK's Ratification of the CISG and to the Harmonization of Contract Law in Europe

Interpretation Rules and Good Faith as Obstacles to the UK's Ratification of the CISG and to the Harmonization of Contract Law in Europe

The Reform of Contract in France: Projects and Perspectives Foggia 9 - 10 October 2009 (La Réforme du Droit des Contrats en France: Projets et Perspectives Foggia, 9 - 10 Octobre 2009)

University of Foggia (Universita degli Studi di Foggia - Facolta di Giurisprudenza) in collaboration with the PhD program in legal general theory hosted, from 9th to 10th October 2009, the Bilateral Conference The Reform of Contract in France: Projects and Perspectives.In reaction to the European debate on the harmonisation of contract law and in attempting to strengthen the prestige of the Civil Code, to be considered as a possible model, French scholars are intensively working on the reform of Title III of Book III on Obligations. From 2006 until now, three main projects have been submitted for public debate. However, now, it has been left to the Ministry of Justice to elaborate the most recent version and give effect to the reforms. different proposals aim to offer alternative rules to the existing regime, taking, most of all, into consideration the major innovations enhanced by the Cour de Cassation's case law and the implementation of EU legislation, bearing in mind the solutions adopted in the most important comparative studies concerning the harmonisation of European contract.This paper gives a general summary of the main issues raised on the origins, the evolutions and the tools of this historical reform, by enriching the dialogue between Italian and French eminent scholars. Moving from a presentation of the general principles that have been declared as principes directeurs of contract law, the conference discussion firstly touched upon the major concern regarding the actual role of the cause and its perspectives. Alongside this, it was illustrated that the different projects present mitigated solutions concerning the introduction of the imprevision, traditionally rejected by courts and the legislator, and seem to take into account, in some circumstances, the imbalance of the contract. Finally, the evolution of the impact of reforms on the external effects of contract, having regard to other such as interdependent contracts and to effects on third parties, was discussed. As a consequence, the main doubt raised was whether or not it can be taken that the reforms are simply trying to tout changer pour que rien ne bouge…Therefore, in closing the working sessions, Prof. Iudica argued that the reform movement witnessed in France corresponds to a broader apprehension at the European level on the process of harmonisation of contract law. Regarding this phenomenon, with some scepticism, he wondered if, ultimately, a reform of existing contract law must really be seen as an impelling requirement at the national and European level, in view of the concrete expectations of those who are actually addressed by these set rules.