Right to Damages in European Contract Law

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 27 May 2019
• Author: Reinhard Zimmermann
• Citation: (2016) 27 Stell LR 354
• Pages: 354-373
• Date: 27 May 2019

RIGHT TO DAMAGES IN EUROPEAN

CONTRACT LAW

Reinhard Zimmermann

Prof Dr Dr hc mult

Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law,

Hamburg

1 Introduction

One of the most interesting legal developments af fecting private law

in Europe today is the emergence (or better, re-emergence) of a genuinely

European legal scholarship and Eu ropean private law.1 Of considerable

importance, i n that respect, have been the model rules d rafted by internat ional

groups of academics in the wa ke of, and inspired by, the Convention on

Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (“CISG”): t he Pri nciples of

Eu rop ea n Con tra ct La w (“P ECL” ),2 the U NIDROIT Principles of International

Commercial C ontracts (“PICC”),3 the Acquis Principles (“ACQP”)

4 and

the Draf t Common Frame of Reference (“DCFR”),5 to name t he most

prominent ones.6 Based on all these efforts, and on a so-called Feasibility

Study (“FS”),7 the European Commission published, in October 2011, a

Proposal for a Regulation of the Europea n Parliament and of the Council on

a Common European Sales Law (includi ng, it must be added, large par ts of

general contr act law) (“CESL”).8 Since its publication the Proposal has been

1 For details, see R Zimmerman n “Comparat ive Law and the Euro peanizat ion of Private Law ”

in R Z immerman & M Reimann (eds) The O xford Handbook o f Comparativ e Law (2008) 539;

R Zimmerm ann “The Prese nt State of European P rivate Law” (2009) 57 Am J Comp L 4 79.

2 O Lan do & H Beale (eds) Prin ciples of Europ ean Contract L aw I (1995); O Lando & H Beale (eds),

Principles o f European Contrac t Law I & II (2000); O Lando, E Clive, A Prü m & R Zimmerm ann (eds)

Principles o f European Contra ct Law III (2003) .

3 UNIDROIT (ed) UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (1994, 2004, 2 010). A

furthe r, amended version will app ear in the course of 2016. It contain s the results of a Working Group

consideri ng the special problem s relating to long-ter m contracts.

4 Research Grou p on the Existing EC Private L aw (ed) Principles of the Exis ting EC Contract La w (Acquis

Principles) Contract I (2007); Research Group on the Ex isting EC Private Law (ed) Principles o f the

Existing EC Con tract Law (Acquis Pr inciples) Contract II (2009) .

5 C von Bar & E C live (eds) P rinciples, Definitio ns and Model Rule s of European Private Law: Draf t

Common Frame of Re ference (200 9).

6 For furt her details, see R Zi mmermann “’Wissenschaf tliches Recht’ am Beispiel (vor allem) des

europäische n Vertragsrechts” i n C Bumke & A Röthel (eds) Privates Recht (2012) 21; cf also the relevant

entries in t he ACQP, DCFR, PECL, and PICC; fu rther, eg, K Sieh r “Code Europée n des Contrat s

European Civil Code” in J Basedow, KJ Hopt & R Zimmermann (eds) The Max Planck Enc yclopedia of

European Private Law (MaxEuP) (2012).

7 The feasibilit y study for a fu ture inst rument in E uropean Cont ract Law, prepa red by a Commiss ion Expert

Group on Europe an Contr act Law (3 May 2011), is easily accessible in R Schulze & R Zimmerma nn

(eds) Europäisches Privatrecht: Basistexte III 5 ed (2016) 29 and in H Beale, O Radley-G ardner,

R Zimmerm ann & R Schulze (eds) Funda mental Texts in Europea n Private Law 2 ed (2016).

8 Proposal for a Reg ulation of the Europe an Parliament and of the Co uncil on a Common Europ ean Sales

Law COM(2011) 635 final - 2011/0284 (COD). The C ESL itsel f const itutes annex I to the Proposed

Regulation (“Propo sed CESL -Regulation”). The text is ea sily acc essible i n Beale et al Fundamental

Text s.

354

(2016) 27 Stell LR 354

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examined critically;9 it has been assessed in a compa rative context;10 and the

rst commentaries have even appeared.11 In addition, a Working Group of

the Europea n Law Institute (“ELI”) has prepare d a statement and suggested

improvements thereto.12 A number of these suggestions have found their way

into the Draft Report submitted by the Eu ropean Parliament’s Committee on

Legal Affairs,13 which wa s accepted by Parliament in its rst reading on 26

February 2014 with a large majority.14 But t he n the te rm of of ce of t he (se con d)

Barroso Commission expired. Following the European election in May 2014,

the new Commission, led by Jean-Claude Juncker, in a communication from

December 2014, announced its intention to withd raw the CESL and to replace

it w ith another proposal specically aiming “ to fully unleash the potential

of e-commerce in the Digital Common Market”.15 The new instr ument will

thus be enacted as pa rt of the “Digital Market Str ategy for Europe”.16 On

9 December 2015, a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and

of the Council on certa in aspects concerni ng contracts for the online and other

distance sales of goods17 has indeed been published. This proposal takes the

rules of the Consumer Sales Directive18 as its basis, and it provides for full

harmonisation of the cr iteria for conformity of the goods, the hierarchy of

9 See, eg H Eid enmüller, N Jansen , E-M Kieninger, G Wagner & R Zimmer mann “ The Prop osal for a

Regulation on a C ommon European Sales L aw: Deficits of the Most Rece nt Textual Layer of European

Contract Law” (2012) 16 Edinb LR 301; and the contributions to G Wagner & R Zimm ermann (eds)

“Sondert agung der Ziv ilrechtslehre rvereinigu ng zum Vorschlag f ür ein Com mon European Sales Law”

(2012) 219 Archiv für die civilistische Praxis 467.

10 G Da nnemann & S Vogenauer (eds) The Common Euro pean Sales Law in Context: Inte ractions with

English and Ger man Law (2013); I Claeys & R Feldkamp (eds) The D raft Common Europ ean Sales Law:

Towards an Alterna tive Sales Law? A Belgi an Perspective (2 013).

11 R Schulz e (ed) Common Europe an Sales Law (CESL): Commenta ry (2012); M Schmidt-Kessel (ed) Der

Entwurf f ür ein Gemeinsa mes Europäische s Kaufrecht: Komme ntar (2014) .

12 European La w Institute State ment of the European Law In stitute on the Propos al for a Regulation on a

Common Europ ean Sales Law COM(2011) 635 final (7 Septembe r 2012); and see European Law Inst itute

Statement of t he European Law Ins titute on the Propo sal for a Regulation o n a Common European S ales

Law COM(2011) 635 final: 1st Supplement: Resp onse to the EP Legislative Re solution of 26 February

2014 (2014). Both documents are available on the ELI website under “P ublications”. See European

Law Instit ute “Publicat ions” (2016) European La w Institute ps://www.europeanlawinstitute.eu/

publications /eli-publications/> (acc essed 20-06 -2016).

13 European Pa rliament: Com mittee on Leg al Affairs D raft Report on t he proposal for a reg ulation of

the European Pa rliament and of t he Council on a Com mon European S ales Law COM(2011) 0635

– C7-0329/2011 – 2011/0284(COD) (2013). For b ackground, see H-P Mayer & J Lind emann “Zu den

aktuelle n Entwickl ungen um das Gemeinsa me Europä ische Kauf recht auf EU-Ebene ” (2014) 22

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht 1.

14 European P arliament Leg islative res olution of 26 Febru ary 2014 on the proposal for a r egulation of

the European Pa rliament and of t he Council on a Com mon European S ales Law COM(2014) 0635 -

C7-0329/2011 – 2011/0284(COD) (2013).

15 European C ommission Com mission Work Progr amme 2015 – A New Start C OM(2 014) 910 fin al. For

comment, se e European Law Insti tute “Statement of the E uropean Law Instit ute: Unlocking the Dig ital

Single Market – A n Instru ment for 21st Century Eu rope 2nd Suppleme nt to the Stateme nt of the European

Law Institut e on the Proposal for a Regulation on a Com mon European Sales Law” (2015) Europea n Law

Institute (accessed 01-06-2016).

16 Communi cation from the Com mission to the Euro pean Parliament , the Council, the Eu ropean Econom ic

and Social Com mittee and the Comm ittee of the Regions A Digital S ingle Market Strateg y for Europe

COM (2015) 192 fi nal.

17 Europea n Commission Pr oposal for a Direc tive of the Europ ean Parliament a nd of the Council o n

certain asp ects concerning contr acts for the online and other di stance sales of goods COM(2015) 635

final 2015/0288 (COD).

18 Directive 199 9/44/EC of the European Pa rliament and of the Cou ncil of 25 May 1999 on certai n aspects

of the sale of consu mer goods and assoc iated guarant ees.

RIGHT TO DAMAGES IN EUROPEAN CONTRACT LAW 355

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