Euro reform rejected

European Commission plans to standardise European contract law have been greeted with scepticism by UK lawyers as well as UK judges at the European Court of Justice.

Recently published replies to last year's consultation on harmonising contract laws show that UK respondents are doubtful that the internal market is hampered by the existence of different national contract laws, claiming that different systems often produce similar results.

The consultation paper suggested four options for solving the problems caused by the diversity of national contract laws: leave the market to solve any problems; have the commission develop a non-binding set of common principles; improve existing European legislation; or develop enforceable cross-border laws.

Among the 160 government, representative bodies and others who replied, there was little overall support for either the first or last option, with a large majority emphasising the need to review the existing provisions to achieve a greater degree of coherence and simplification.

City firms Lovells and CMS Cameron McKenna, and the Law Society, were among those to respond.

Meanwhile, Judge David Edward of the European Court of Justice and Judge Nicholas Forwood of the European Court of First Instance told the Gazette that a single commercial contract code is unlikely to be introduced owing to different approaches to contract law across the union.

The commission will publish its conclusions later this year.

See Focus

Victoria MacCallum