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Simon Whittaker
On the Development of European Standard Contract Terms
This article considers the desirability of the development of sector-specific European standard contract terms. This idea was put forward by the ECCommission in a series of communications between 2002 and 2004, and while in September 2005 it appeared to back-peddle on its earlier proposals, it nevertheless advanced something rather similar, though couched in the more regulatory language of a sector-specific ‘26th regime.’ The author argues that there are four main reasons why the development of European standard contract terms should be given a cool reception: reasons stemming from the language or languages by which such standard terms would be expressed, from the different normative contexts in which they would take effect, from differences in national approaches to contractual interpretation and from differences in the national regulation of unfair contract terms. While the last of these reasons would not apply if such European standard terms were able to override national controls on the fairness of contract terms, it is argued that this abandonment of established national and EC controls would be unjustified given the likely nature in practice of the process by which such standard terms would be agreed.
European Review of Contract Law, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1614-9920
Volume: 2, 02/2006
Pages: 51 - 76