`EU threat to the common lawLAW REFORM: Pan-European civil code would not harm English or Irish legal systems, says studyThe price of free movement of lawyers across the European Union could be harmonising civil and procedural law into a civil code and bringing an end to centuries of common law, EU research has suggested.The study of private law in the EU and the creation of a European civil code, which was commissioned by the European Parliament's legal affairs committee, has just come to light. It predicts that 'the resistance of European lawyers to the standardisation of civil law is unavoidable. But it is there to be overcome'.The report said: 'Free movement of solicitors within an area undergoing a process of integration can only come to full fruition within a fundamentally uniform system of procedural law throughout that area.'It added later: 'If this freedom of movement is to be fully implemented, a uniform basis for legal practice throughout the territory of the Community is required.'The report dismissed the idea of standardising all legal systems for overlooking 'the functional distinction between procedural and substantive law.' While noting the differences between common and civil law, the report said: 'The great differences are actually a reason for standardising the law rather than an argument against it.' This could see the common law subsumed into a unified civil code.The study went on to speculate that a civil code would not harm 'the legal systems of the British Isles. They themselves, after all, already possess partially 'codified' structures, the law on the sale of goods being one example'.Cross-border contracts relating to the free movement of goods and services, contracts for professional services, bank agreements and insurance contracts were identified as areas where the need for harmonisation is greatest. June O'Keeffe, the Law Society's Brussels representative, said: 'We don't see any need for a harmonised European civil code and we don't see any link between it and the free movement of lawyers.' She said the problems English solicitors had working in EU countries were for other reasons. It is unclear whether this research is being taken forward.Neil Rose