Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law: Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) Interim Outline Edition, prepared by the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the Research group on EC Private Law (Acquis group) by Christian von Bar, Eric Clive, Hans Schulte‐Nöcke (eds)
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Author | Hugh Collins |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00718.x |
REVIEWS
Christian von Bar, EricClive, HansSchulte-N˛cke (eds), Principles, De¢nitions and
Model Rules of European Private Law: Draft Common Frame of Reference
(DCFR) Interim Outline Edition, prepared by the Study Group on a
European Civil Code and the Research group on EC Private Law (Acquis
group),Munich: Sellier European Law Publishers, 2008, 369 pp, pb h10.
In 2003, the European Commission announced its ActionPla n on A More Coherent
EuropeanContract Law(COM(2003)¢nal).Amongst its proposals was the develop-
ment of a Comm on Frame of Reference (CFR) for contract law. The Commission
explained that the CF Rwould not be a code of contract law, for it would not be
a legal enactment, but it would closely resemble a code by providing principles,
model rules and de¢nitions.The Commissioncould use the CFR to improve the
coherenceof Communitylegislation and it might form thebasis in the future for
a legal instrument. It was expected that legislatures and courts would refer to the
CFRwhen enacting and interpreting European legal measures. Despite protesta-
tions by the Commission that it was merely assembling a ‘tool box’, it became
clear when the Commission awarded substantial funds to groups led by German
legal scholars (the Study Group on a European Civil Code led by Professor von
Bar and the Research Group on Existing EC Private Law led by Professor
Schulte-N˛lke) to draftthe C FRthat they were not expecting to receive in return
a small plumbing job. This volume represents a draft of the main parts of the
CFR, which indeed imitates closely a traditional European civil code.
The volume is divided into six book s, numbered perhaps appropriately in the
Roman way.Book I,‘GeneralProvisions’ contains some technical de¢nitionssuch
as ‘computation of time‘, but more importantly indicates that the intended ¢eld of
application is contracts and that its provisions should not be used in connection
with issues of capacity, family law, succession, negotiable instruments, employ-
ment, security rights in land, company law, and procedure. These excluded topics
would normally be found in codes, with the law of persons at the beginning.
Leaving those matters to one side, therefore, in Book II we jump straight to‘Con-
tracts and Other Juridical Acts’. Helpfully, for non-German readersit is explained
that ‘A juridical act is any statement or agreement or declaration of intention,
whether express or implied from conduct, which has or is intended to have legal
e¡ect as such. It may be unilateral, bilateral ormulti-lateral’ (II.1.101(2)).These jur-
idical acts are hard acts to follow: most of them are contractual agreements, but
others are unilateral declarations, promises, and actions that are intended to have
legal e¡ects ^ the old ‘declaration of will’, except that these days ‘will’ is judged
objectively by what the reasonable promisee thought was bei ng promised or
conferred. Book II mostly then sets out the model rules for the formation of
contracts and the construction and interpretation of contracts. Book III entitled
r2008 The Authors.Journal Compilation r20 08The Modern Law Review Limited.
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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