Fundamentals of European Civil Law

It has been well over a decade since Fundamentals of European Civil Law was first published and this new edition details the extensive changes which have occurred since. Significant developments have affected the European legal order at national as well as supra-national levels. At a national level, especially the law of obligations has been the subject of thorough official review in both France and Germany. Obligations, whether in tort or contract, constitute a core part of the grand civil codes of nineteenth century Europe. In Germany the Act on the Modernisation of the Law of Obligations (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Schuldrechts) came into effect on 1 January 2002. The Act has been hailed as the most sweeping reform of the German civil code to date. In France a similar project to rejuvenate the law of obligations has resulted in the so-called Avant-projet Catala, which was submitted to the government in 2005. At the level of the European Community, the formal adoption of a ‘constitution for Europe’ failed. Even so, the Treaties of Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon all represent major amendments to the Treaty of Rome. Together they have expanded the subject matter of European law and revamped the institutional set-up of the European Union. Consumer protection (including general product safety), in particular, has become a major pre-occupation of the contemporary European legislature. Vranken accommodates all of these and other changes preserving where possible, the format of the book. Thus the civil law is discussed in a manner accessible to a common law audience.