This book revolves around major legal developments in the fields of European contract law and tort law from 1981 to today and examines whether similarities or divergences can be observed.

This rise of a particular kind of European Union legislation known as the ‘optional instrument’ is a novel trend in the context of EU law, and one that until now has not been comprehensively mapped or explored. This study examines and discusses existing and proposed EU Optional Instruments (OIs) in different fields of European law, including company law, intellectual property law and procedural law (such as the European Company, the Community ...

Technological and economical developments require contracting parties to be informed and advised. This book analyses several aspects of these information and notification duties.

The international character of shipping and transport has always been a great incubator for harmonisation of law. Recently, there has been increasing interest within the EU in harmonisation of general private law, with different harmonisation instruments such as common core, PECL and DCFR coming into existence. In this book the possible impact of these private law harmonisation instruments on shipping and transport law is assessed.

Differences in contract law and the additional transaction costs and complexity they generate in cross-border transactions dissuade a considerable number SMEs from expanding into markets of other Member States. These differences are also said to limit competition in the internal market.

This book argues that motive in committing breach of contract should matter in the application of remedies in contract. Deliberate breach of contract requires a different and sterner answer from the law of contract than any other breach of contract, because equally remedying all breaches of contract threatens parties’ trust in the law of contract.

This book discusses two major instruments of European contract law that saw the light in 2011: the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD) and the proposal for a Common European Sales Law (CESL). Both instruments aim at improving the internal market.

This book studies the situation where unexpected circumstances render the performance of a contract much more difficult or onerous and those which frustrate the purpose of the transaction. It includes a comparative analysis of European and Latin American jurisdictions as well as American contract law.

Van egoïsme via paternalisme naar fraternalisme? Doorheen de bijdragen wordt aangetoond dat anno 2010 samenwerking en flexibiliteit de nieuwe codewoorden zijn van het contractenrecht.