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This article argues in favour of a Europeanisation of contract law. It is submitted that we the citizens of Europe cannot content ourselves with the existing Europeanisation which is both fragmentary and uncoordinated and which provides no general principles. The Commission on European Contract Law has been established to provide Principles of European Contract Law. The experience of the Commission is that a Europeanisation of contract law is feasible. The Union could either aim at a creeping uncodified harmonisation brought about by the scholars and the courts or a codification ic, a European Civil Code. The author argues for the latter solution.

The twelfth edition of Dicey & Morris, The Conflict of Laws (hereafter Dicey & Morris) appeared in 1993 under the general editorship of Dr Lawrence Collins and with Professors Trevor C. Hartley, J. D. McClean and C. G. J. Morse as specialist editors. It has since been updated by a yearly cumulative supplement; the latest is from 1997. The book takes in the whole province of private international law and is rich in material and ideas. It shows how English lawyers have reacted to the outside world without forgetting that the conflict of laws has an international character. Its students consider it to be a noble science. As Arthur Nussbaum said, the student of private international law "feels himself, as it were, a member of an international community of learning. He will have to study foreign legal ideas and will thereby obtain insight into the variety and interplay of heterogeneous legal concepts and ideas all over the world."

Abstract. The Commission of European Contract Law has been established to provide principles of contract law for the European Communities. These principles are intended to serve as guidelines for the institutions of the European Communities when they are in need of contract rules to govern issues which are not subject to national law. They will serve as a draft of a future European Code, the preparation of which has been advocated by the European Parliament in 1989. The principles may also help national courts who have to interpret the existing uniform or harmonized laws. They need a backbone of common principles to serve as a legal background for the interpretation of the uniform laws. Finally the principles may be useful for arbitrators in international commercial disputes. The arbitration are often in search of general principles of law which they prefer to national laws.
The Commission of European Contract Law is a non-governmental body of about 20 lawyers from the 12 EC-Countries. From 1982 till 1992 it has worked on questions concerning performance and non-performance (breach) of contracts. This first part of its work will be published in 1993. Presently the Commission is working at the questions concerning formation, validity, interpretation and asignment of contracts.