This book brings ‘The Common Core of European Private Law’ over the threshold of a half dozen published results. The project was launched in 1993 at the University of Trento under the auspices of the late Professor Rudolf B. Schlesinger. The methodology used in the Trento project is novel. By making use of case studies it goes beyond mere description to detailed inquiry into how most European Union legal systems resolve specific legal questions in practice, and to thorough comparison between those systems. It is our hope that these volumes will provide scholars with a valuable tool for research in comparative law and in their own national legal systems. The collection of materials that the Common Core Project is offering to the scholarly community is already quite extensive and will become even more so when more volumes are published. The availability of materials attempting a genuine analysis of how things are is, in our opinion, a prerequisite for an intelligent and critical discussion on how they should be. Perhaps in the future European private law will be authoritatively restated or even codified. The analytical work carried on today by the nearly 200 scholars involved in the Common Core Project is a precious asset of knowledge and legitimization for any such normative enterprise.

We must thank not only the editors and contributors to these first published results but also all the participants who continue to contribute to The Common Core of European Private Law project.