Contract Law in Europe and the United States: Legal Unification in the Civil Law and the Common Law

Abstract

Common law jurisdictions seem to accept internal legal diversity with a fair amount of equanimity. Although the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are functioning single markets, they have no uniform contract or tort law nor do they seem to think that uniformity in these areas is meritorious or desirable as such. On the other hand civil law jurisdictions in general and the European Union in particular consider the harmonization and unification of contract law as a matter of great importance despite the fact that there is little evidence showing that uniformity is required by the practical requirements of a functioning economic community. The article discusses the development of the "Europeanization" of private law and speculates on the reasons which may have led European countries to devote much energy to the formulation, if not codification, of uniform rules of European contract law.

This article is published in this Research Paper Series with the kind permission of the Tulane European and Civil Law Forum in accordance with its Author/Journal Publication Agreement and Copyright License. For further information on the Journal, please visit its website.

Keywords: Contract Law, Legal Unification in the Common Law and the Civil Law, Unification of European Contract Law