The recently proposed Common European Sales Law is intended to overcome differences between national contract laws. 19 chapters, co-authored by British and German scholars, investigate for the first time how the projected CESL would interact with various aspects of English and German law.

This book presents a critical analysis of the rules on the contents and effects of contracts included in the proposal for a Common European Sales Law (CESL). The European Commission published this proposal in October 2011 and then withdrew it in December 2014, notwithstanding the support the proposal had received from the European Parliament in February 2014. On 6 May 2015, in its Communication ‘A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe’, the Commission expressed its intention to “make an amended legislative proposal (...) further harmonising the main rights and obligations of the parties to a sales contract”. The critical comments and suggestions contained in this book, to be understood as lessons to learn from the CESL, intend to help not only the Commission but also other national and supranational actors, both public and private (including courts, lawyers, stakeholders, contract parties, academics and students) in dealing with present and future European and national instruments in the field of contract law. The book is structured into two parts. The first part contains five essays exploring the origin, the ambitions and the possible future role of the CESL and its rules on the contents and effects of contracts. The second part contains specific comments to each of the model rules on the contents and effects of contracts laid down in Chapter 7 CESL (Art. 66-78). Together, the essays and comments in this volume contribute to answering the question of whether and to what extent rules such as those laid down in Art. 66-78 CESL could improve or worsen the position of consumers and businesses in comparison to the correspondent provisions of national contract law. The volume adopts a comparative perspective focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on German and Dutch law.

This book presents a complete and coherent view of the subject of Common European Sales Law from a range of European perspectives. The book offers a comparison of the CESL with the CISG, as well as pre-existing instruments, including the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) and the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL). It analyses the process of enactment of CESL and its scope of application, covering areas such as the sale of goods, the supplying (licensing) of digital content, the supply of trade-related services, and consumer protection. It examines the design of the CESL bifurcating businesses into large and small-to-medium sized enterprises, and the providing of rules covering digital content and the supply of trade-related services. Lastly, it studies the field of application of the CESL combined with the already existing EU consumer protection laws, as well as nation-specific laws.​

The emergence of European Contract Law as a field of enquiry has been matched by a burgeoning literature. This includes textbooks, casebooks, monographs and commentaries as well as at least one journal and huge number of journal articles. As the field has matured, so has its elaboration and analysis by scholars, though it remains a field replete with contested viewpoints and many controversies. This new work by one of Germany's most well-known and respected private law scholars, seeks to present a complete and coherent view of the subject from the perspective of the jurisdiction which has arguably had more responsibility than any other for influencing the shape and content of European contract law

In October 2011, the European Commission introduced its Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) which covers inter alia international business sales – a subject already regulated by the Convention of International Sale of Goods (CISG) which was ratified by 78 member states. How does this new Proposal fit the existing uniform sales law? How have other regions of the world managed the coexistence of global and regional sales law unification? What can Europe learn from the U.S. experience concerning the CISG and the Uniform Commercial Code? What can we learn from the African OHADA which made CISG more or less the internal law of 17 African states, what from Australia where CISG and common law exist alongside? All these questions are intensely discussed in this highly recommendable book written by renowned authors like Larry DiMatteo, Harry Flechtner, Franco Ferrari, Robert Koch, Ulrich Magnus and Bruno Zeller.

The proposal from the European Commission for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) has raised divergent reactions from various parties across Europe. This volume contributes actively to this discussion, offering the lawyers' point of view. The book promotes a debate and an exchange of views among representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, and legal practitioners regarding the main legal issues of the CESL. The outcome is a dialogue where general concerns (such as: Do we need a CESL? Can the CESL achieve what it sets out to do? etc.) receive articulate answers considering both theoretical and practical implications of the CESL.

Businesses would undoubtedly prefer a legal environment with less complexity. In the European Commission's view, the legal diversity resulting from the 27 different national contract laws of the Member States creates unnecessary legal complexity and constitutes an impediment to the proper functioning of the internal market. While existing European contract law instruments mainly focus on harmonizing aspects of consumer law, with the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL), the Commission has now firmly extended the scope of European contract law to also cover commercial sales contracts. However, the CESL is not the first instrument to create a set of uniform rules for cross-border commercial sales contracts. At the international level, there is already the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The current proposal consequently raises a number of pertinent questions concerning the relationship between the two instruments, as well as the necessity, desirability, choice for legal base and likely success of the European instrument. The introduction of a European instrument for cross-border commercial sales contracts essentially inserts a new, regional instrument between the divergent national laws of the Member States and the international sales convention. Rather than simplifying the legal environment, such a step adds to its complexity. This would only make sense if (i) diversity of national contract laws is a serious problem for business that needs to be tackled by creating uniform (European) rules; (ii) the existing uniform rules (CISG) have significant shortcomings, and (iii) the new instrument has added value. This article examines the proposed CESL on this basis.