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Harmonisation of European Contract law the Influence of Comparative law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2008

Extract

It is generally acknowledged today that comparative law plays a decisive role in the harmonisation of European private law, in particular of European contract law.1 Dölle has emphasised this strong link between comparative law and European integration as early as 1950 in his report on the refoundation of the German Association of Comparative Law:

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Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2001

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References

1. See Tallon, (1998) UniLR, at 703, 704: ‘Il y a plus de droit comparé au XXIéme siècle—c'est très vraisamblable. La “mondialisation” ou, plus modestement, l'européanisation ne peut que conduire á ce résultat.’

2. Dölle, ‘Zum neuen Aufbruch der Rechtsvergleichung in Deutschland’ repr. in (2000) 28 Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung, Sonderheft ‘50 Jahre Wiedergründung’ 10, 12 (translation by the author); see also Zweigert, ‘Die Rechtsvergleichung im Dienst der Europäischen Rechtsvereinheitlichung’, speech held at the first meeting of the German Association of Comparative Law on 15 Oct 1950, reported by Jescheck, (2000) 28 Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung, Sonderheft ‘50 Jahre Wiedergründung’, 14, 18.

3. Schmitthoff, International Trade Usages (1987), No. 71: ‘Substantive law is often born in the womb of procedure. In keeping with their international character, the law which these international arbitral bodies create is transnational. It is the new lex mercatoria.’

4. Gaillard, in Sanders (ed.), ‘Arbitration in settlement of international commercial disputes involving the Far East and disruption of arbitration’, ICCA Congress ser no 4 (1989), at 283.

5. UNIDROIT (ed.), UNIDROIT Principles for International Commercial Contracts (1994).

6. Lando and Beale (eds.), Principles of European Contract Law, Parts I and II (2000), at 1 et seq; see also Hesselink/de Vries, Principles of European Contract Law (2001).

7. See Berger, (1998) Am J Comp L 129, 132 ft; Bonell, An International Restatement of Contract Law, 2nd edn (1997), at 241.

8. See Lord Goff in his 1997 Wilberforce Lecture, ‘The Future of the Common Law’ (1997) ICLQ 745, 748: ‘Comparative law may have been the hobby of yesterday, but it is destined to become the science of tomorrow. We must welcome rather than fear its influence.’

9. Stone, (1950/1) Tul L Rev 325, 330; Wallace, in Horn/Schmitthorff (eds.), The Transnational Law of International Commercial Transactions (1982), at pp. 81 ff; Coing, in Coing, Schmitthoff, Hellner and Gleichmann, Methoden der Rechtsvereinheitlichung (1974), at 7, 16; Lorenz, (1962) JZ 269, 270.

10. Berger, ZEuP (2001), 4, 6 ff.

11. See generally E. A. Kramer, in Schluep et al. (eds.), Recht, Staat und Politik am Ende des zweiten Jahrtausends (1993), at 729, 736; Kramer, in Meier-Schatz (ed.), Die Zukunft des Rechts (1999), at 71, 74 ff.; Markesinis, The Gradual Convergence. Foreign Ideas, Foreign Influences and English Law on the Eve of the 21st Century (1994); Berger (2001) Eur Rev Priv L 21, 30 et seq.

12. See, eg Dannemann, in: Schulte-Nölke and Schulze (eds.), Europäische Rechtsangleichung und nationale Privatrechte (1999), at 191 ff.; Müller-Graff, in Hartkamp, Hesselink, Hondius, Joustra and du Perron (eds.), Towards a European Civil Code, 2nd. edn (1998), at 71 ff.

13. Kötz, in Müller-Graff (ed.), Gemeinsames Privatrecht in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft, 2nd. ed. (1999), at 149, 155 ff.

14. See generally Hondius, inWeyers (ed.), Europäisches Vertragsrecht (1997), at pp. 45, 62 et seq.

15. See for this concept Berger, The Creeping Codification of the Lex Mercatoria (1999) at 83 ff.; Berger, in Festschrift Sandrock (2000), at 49 ff.; E. A. Kramer, in C. J. Meier-Schatz (ed.), op. cit. above n. 11, at 82, n. 52.

16. See Wichard, (1996) 60 RabelsZ 269, 299 ff.

17. Cf. Esser, Vorverständnis und Methodenwahl in der Rechtsfindung (1970), 123.

18. See Wichard, op. cit. above n. 16, at 300 suggesting that under German law, the Principles might influence the ‘internationally useful interpretation’ of Sec. 254 (duty to mitigate damages) and 275 (impossibility) of the Civil Code.

19. Aden, (1984) RIW 934, 937.

20. Berger, (1992) J Int'l Arb No. 4 at 5, 14.

21. ICC Award No. 8486, (1998) Clunet 1047 with note Derains, id., 1050 et seq. (= (1999) Yearbook Commercial Arbitration XXVI 162 ff.).

22. See generally Hondius, in Weyers (ed.), Europäisches Vertragsrecht (1997), at 45, 69 ff.

23. (1999) Yearbook Commercial Arbitration XXVI 166 ff.

24. Schödermeier, Sonderprivatrecht für Internationale Wirtschaftsverträge, 198: ‘All in all, the statutory construction according to the functional considerations of international practice is embedded in the values of the respective domestic legal system—there is trust in international practice, but it is controlled and verified according to domestic fundamental legal values. Domestic laws can hardly be denied this influence’ (translation by the author).

25. G. Kuijer, Ars Aequi, Ars Aequi Libri (1996), 16, 19.

26. It is argued that due to this thorough comparative preparation of the Dutch Civil Code, the Dutch lawmaker ‘may have found its own style, based on Continental-Eeuropean ius commune’, Zweigert/Kötz, Einführung in die Rechtsvergleichung (3rd edn 1996), 101.

27. See A. Rosett, (1998) Am J Comp L. 354: ‘[The Principles] … supply common-sensical approaches to problems that have long eluded common sense.’

28. Berger, op. cit. above n. 15, at 190; Wichard, op. cit. above n. 16, at pp. 300 et seq.

29. See Hartkamp, in ICC (ed.), UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts: A New Lex Mercatoria? (1995), Rome, at 254, 259: ‘Whenever a rule [of domestic law] leaves room for interpretation, profit may be made from the [UNIDROIT] Principles.’

30. Canaris, in Basedow (ed.), Europäische Vertragsrechtsvereinheitlichung und deutsches Recht (2000), at 5, 31 (translation by the author).

31. See Basedow, in Basedow (ed.), Europäische Vertragsrechtsvereinheitlichung und deutsches Recht (2000), at 2.

32. See for this dual purpose of the functional comparative analysis Schmitthoff, (1967–1968), UNIDROIT Annuaire 93, 110.

33. Bonell, op. cit. above n. 7, at 48.

34. Ibid, at p. 88; Bonell, (1996) Unif L R 29, 234.

35. Lando and Beale, op. cit. above n. 6, at 195.

36. See Schmitthoff, above n. 32, op. cit.

37. See above n. 29.

38. See Zweigert and Kötz, op. cit. above n. 26, § 18 IV. in fine; cf. generally Markesinis, op. cit. above n. 11, at pp. 24 ff.; Merryman, (1981) Stanford J Int'l L. 357 ff.; but see Legrand, (1996) ICLQ 52 ff.

39. See Kötz, (1987) Modern L Rev 1, 11 ff.

40. See Hedemann, Reichsgericht und Wirtschaftsrecht (1929), 287 et seq. (‘Kryptopraecedentiensystem’); Larenz, in Festschrift Schima (1969), at 247, 262; Allen, Law in the Making (3rd edn 1939), 298 ff.

41. See MacCormick and Summers, in MacCormick and Summers (eds.), Interpreting Precedents (1997), at. 531, 532: ‘The caricature picture of civil law systems free from the shackles of precedent in contrast to the common law enslaved to its own past (or preserving the “good old order”) is certainly no longer remotely accurate, if it ever was’; Zweigert and Kötz, op. cit. above n. 36, § 18.II; Rabel, (1951) 16 RabelsZ 340, 345; see also for the ‘naive contrast’ of both systems H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (1961), 123.

42. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (vol. I, 15th edn 1809), 70: ‘Upon the whole … we may take it as a general rule that the decisions of courts of justice are the evidence of what is common law in the same manner as, in civil law, what the emperor had once determined was to serve for a guide for the future’; Radbruch, Der Geist des Englischen Rechts (1946), 46; Gordley, (1995) Am J Comp L 555, 558: ‘Joseph Story, James Kent and Nathan Dane cautioned that the cases are, at most, evidence of the principles that constitute the law.’

43. Llewellyn, Präjudizienrecht und Rechtsprechung in Amerika (1933), 112 (translation by the author); see also Horn, (2000) NJW 40, 45: ‘In practice […] a long standing line of precedents from the highest court is like a substitute lawmaker …’ (translation by the author).

44. Llewellyn, op. cit., 49 ff.

45. See MacCormick and Summers, op. cit. above n. 41, at 538.

46. Hedemann, op. cit. above n. 40, at 286; see also Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921), 143: ‘The feeling is that nine times out of ten, if not oftener, the conduct of right-minded men would not have been different if the rule embodied in the decision had been announced by statute in advance.’

47. Heinsheimer, Lebendiges Recht (1929), 25; Krebs, (1995) 195 AcP 171, 182 ff.; Pawlowski, Methodenlehre für Juristen (2nd edn 1991), no. 103; Bydlinski, Juristische Methodenlehre und Rechtsbegriffe (2nd edn 1991), 510.

48. Ulmer, (1999) ZGR 751, 777; see also Sendler, in Merten and Schreckenberger (eds.), Kodifikation gestern und heute (1995) at 147, 150 ff.

49. Holmes, ‘The Path of The Law’, in Holmes, Collected Legal Papers (1920), at 167, 173: ‘The prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious, are what I mean by the law’; see also Llewellyn, The Bramble Bush (1930, repr. 1991), 78.

50. MacCormick and Summers, op. cit. above n. 41, at 542.

51. Odersky, (1994) ZEuP 1, 2 (translation by the author, emphasis added); see also Zweigert and Kötz, op. cit. above n. 26, § 2.III.

52. See Schulze, (1997) Zeitschrift für Rechtsvergleichung 183, 186.

53. Laceys Footwear (Wholesale) Limited v Bowler International Freight Limited & Another [1997] 2 Lloyd's L Rep 369, 385.

54. Woolwich Building Society v Inland Revenue Commissioners [1972] WLR 366, 393; Henderson v Merrett [1994] 3 WLR 761, 779; White v Jones [1995] 2 WLR 187, 201; Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd. [1997] 2 WLR 684, 690; Barry v Midland Bank [1998] 1 All ER 805, 821; McFarlane v Tayside Health Board [1999] 4 All ER 961, 975.

55. Möllers, Die Rolle des Rechts im Rahmen der europäischen Integration (1999), 56; see also Lord Goff, op. cit. above n. 8, at 747: ‘A doctrine of precedent is beginning to develop, not all that different from our own.’

56. See Lord Denning in Buchanan v Babco [1977] 1 All ER 518, 523 (CA): ‘Just as in Rome, you should do as Rome does, so, in the European Community, you should do as the European Court does.’

57. Kötz, in Heldrich and Hopt (eds), 50 Jahre Bundesgerichtshof, Festgabe aus der Wissenschaft, Vol. II (2000), at 825, 842; Möllers, op. cit. above n. 55, at 75.

58. Rodriguez Iglesias, (1999) NJW 1, 8.

59. See for this ‘horizontal system’ within the EU von Bogdandy, Supranationaler Föderalismus als Wirklichkeit und Idee einer neuen Herrschaftsform (1999), 18 ff.; see for the necessary redefinition of the notion of ‘state sovereignty’ within the step-by-step process or European integration Denninger, (2000) JZ 1121, 1125 ff.

60. Schulze, op. cit. above n. 52, at 195.

61. See above Introduction.

62. See Dölle, op. cit. above n. 2, at 12.

63. Peters and Schwenke, (2000) ICLQ 800, 809 ff.; see also Gordley, op. cit. above n. 42, at 566: ‘one needs a transnational method simply to understand the law within one's own country. If I am right, that law can rarely be described as a purely national law. It is in large part a transnational law.’

64. See Schulze, op. cit. above n. 52, at 186.

65. See Michael, Der allgemeine Gleichheitssatz als Methodennorm komparativer Systeme (1997), 253; Krebs, op. cit. above n. 47, at 186.

66. ECJ of 5 Nov 1994, Rat C-280/93 (Deutschland/Rat), Slg. 1994, I-4973, 5062; ECJ of 25 Nov 1986, verb. Rat 201/85 and 202/85 (Klensch), Slg. 1986, 3477, 3507; ECJ of 21 Feb 1990, Rat C-267/88 to C-285/88 (Wuidart), Slg. 1990, I-435, 480; cf. generally Lenaerts, (1991) Cahiers de droit européen 3, 25 ff.; Zuleeg, in Festschrift B. Börner (1992), at 473 ff.

67. Zuleeg, op. cit., 477.

68. Bleckmann, Europarecht (6th edn, 1997), no. 1780.

69. See Michael, op. cit. above n. 65, at 211.

70. See E. A. Kramer, in Meyer-Schatz (ed.), op. cit. above n. 11, at 88; see also Schulze, op. cit. above n. 52, at 184.

71. Häberle, Europäische Rechtskultur (1994), 48.

72. Kadelbach, Allgemeines Verwaltungsrecht unter europäischem Einfluß (1999), 286.

73. Ibid. 290.

74. See for the ‘spirit’ (of Roman law) as a driving force behind the development of the law Philipps, Erscheinungsformen und Methoden der Privatrechtsvereinheitlichung (1965), 86; K.Schmidt, in Behrends (ed.), Privatrecht heute und Jherings evolutionäres Rechtsdenken (1993), at 77, 84 ft; see for the ‘international spirit’ as the driving force of comparative law Rabel, in Leser (ed.), Ernst Rabel, Gesammelte Aufsätze, Bd. III (1967), at 1, 21; see for the European spirit of a trans-border doctrine of precedents von Bar, (1994) Zeitschrift für Rechtsvergleichung 221, 231.

75. Markesinis, (2000) Cambridge Law Journal 294, 295.

76. Lando (1998) Unif L Rev. 535, 544; see also Großfeld, (2000) Richmond J Glob L & Bus at 1, 32: ‘Comparative law leads us into temptations we never dared to contemplate; imagination, intuitive perception, discipline, and our courage will be tested. We lose our traditional shelters and sometimes regret entering this vast and dangerous field … But the rewards are worth the risk. The comparative lawyer might gain the chance to present practical results, not just transplants, but new ideas and wider exposure. Seeds he can sow. Above all, however, he will learn about himself, about his own law, about his own culture.’

77. Kötz, op. cit. above n. 57, at 842 (translation by the author).

78. Schulze, op. cit. above n. 52, at 194 for the comparative construction of domestic law hinting at the fact that ‘a provision of contemporary German private law may, according to its underlying purpose, policy, function and scope, be closer to a corresponding provision of Dutch or Italian law than to the intentions of the historic German legislature …’.

79. Markesinis, op. cit. above n. 75, at 302: ‘Certainly this moving “to and fro” between texts to another makes one question the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments advanced. More significantly, one must be asked to consider the merits and demerits of thrashing out in a judicial decision wider policy points and giving the judge the task of not merely adjudicating but also trying his hand at social engineering’; see also Gordley, (1998) Am J Comp L 607, 614.

80. Michael, op. cit. above n. 65, at 213.

81. See for the latter aspect Kötz, (1999) Rev int dr comp. 753, 755 ff.

82. See for this general limit of the right for equal treatment ECJ of 13 Feb 1969, Rat 14/68 (Wilhelm), Slg. 1969, 1, 16; ECJ of 3 July 1979, verb. Rat 185/78 u. 204/78 (Van Dam), Slg. 1979 2345, 2361; Bleckmann, op. cit. above n. 67, no. 1782.

83. Schulze, op. cit. above n. 52, at 193 (for the comparative construction of domestic law).

84. See for the UNIDROIT Principles, A. Rosett, (1998) Am J Comp L, at 349; see for the ‘consensus of values’ (‘Wertekonsens’) as a methodical instrument in the context of European integration Möllers, op. cit. above n. 54, at 42 ff.

85. See below II. 1.

86. Basedow, op. cit. above n. 31, at 1, 3.

87. Ibid. 2.

88. Matteucci, in UNIDROIT Annuaire 1967–1968, Vol. II, at 267, 268 for the influence of international restatements of contract law.

89. See Grossfeld and Bilda (1992) Zeitschrift für Rechtsvergleichung 426 ff.; Zimmermann (1994/95) Col J Europ L 81 (‘In a way, […], it is Savigny versus Thibaut all over again’; see also for a survey of the various options EU Commission (ed), Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on European Contract Law of 11 July 2001 (COM (2001) 398 final), at 13 et seq; cf. also Staudenmayer, 2001 EuZW 485 et seq; Staudenmayer, in: Schulze/Schulte-Nölke (eds.), Die Schuldrechtsreform vor dem Hintergrund des Gemeinschaftsrechts (2001), at 419 et seq.

90. See Lando, in Weyers (ed.), Europäisches Vertragsrecht (1997), at 81, 101; Lando, (1997) Eur Rev Priv L 525, 534; Gandolfi, (1992) Rev trim dr civ 707 ff.; E. A. Kramer, in Schluep et al. (eds.), Recht, Staat und Politik am Ende des zweiten Jahrtausends (1993), at 729, 748; Tilmann, in Festschrift Helmrich (1994), at 437, 439 et seq. and the contributions from Martiny, Schwartze, Eger, Drobnig, and Remien, in Martiny and Witzleb (eds), Auf dem Wege zu einem Europäischen Zivilgesetzbuch (1999).

91. OJEC 1989 No. C 158 of June 26, 1989, at 400; OJEC No. C 205 of April 25 1994, at 94.

92. See Kötz, (1987) Modern L Rev 1 ff.; K. Schmidt, Die Zukunft der Kodifikationsidee (1985), p. 47 ff.; see also Zimmermann, (1995) JZ 477, 479.

93. See Schulze, (1993) ZEuP 442, 473: ‘Our time does not seem to be ripe to approach legal unity in Europe through an EU codification of private law’; Sandrock, (1996) JZ 1, 8; Markesinis (1997) Eur Rev Priv L 519 ff.

94. See generally Berger, Internationale Wirtschaftsschiedsgerichtsbarkeit (1992), p. 374, n. 196; Berger, International Economic Arbitration (1993), 543; id., Formalisierte oder ‘schleichende’ Kodifizierung des Transnationalen Wirtschaftsrechts (1996), 191 ff.; id. (1998) JZ 369, 374; Berger, op. cit. above n. 15, at 210 ff.; Ibid., in CENTRAL (ed.), Transnational Law in Commercial Legal Practice (1999), at 121, 124 ff.; Lando, in ‘Centre for the Advanced Study of European and Comparative Law’ (ed.), The Harmonization of European Contract Law through a Restatement of Principles (1997), at 1, 20.

95. Cf. for the functional qualification in private international law Sandrock, Über Sinn und Methode zivilistischer Rechtsvergleichung (1966), at 25 ff.; Kropholler, Internationales Privatrecht (2nd edn 1994), § 17.

96. Cf. Wieacker, in Festschrift Boehmer, at 46 et seq.

97. Esp. the French Code Civil and the Austrian Civil Code, cf. Merz, in Festschrift Zweigert, at 667, 670 ff.

98. Cf. Blaurock, (1994) JZ 270.

99. Bonell, op. cit. above n. 7, at 236 ff.

100. Ibid.

101. See Prantl, (20 Sept 2000) Süddeutsche Zeitung 1; Jahn (25 Sept 2000) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10.

102. Bundesministerium der Justiz (ed.), Abschluβbericht der Kommission zur Überarbeitung des Schuldrechts (1992).

103. Ibid. 29 ff.

104. Ibid. 31 ff.

105. Council Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees, OJEC L 171 of July 7, 1999, at 12 ff.

106. Council Directive 2000/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on combating late payment in commercial transactions, OJEC L 200 of 8 Aug 2000, at 35.

107. Council Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’), OJEC L 178 of 17 July 2000, at 1 ff.

108. See Dreher, (1997) JZ 167 ff.; Roth, (1999) JZ 529 ff.

109. See Berger, op. cit. above n. 15, at 194 ff.

110. See Schulze, (1997) Deutsche Richter Zeitung 369, 374.

111. See Schmidt-Räntsch, (2000) ZIP 1639.

112. Bundesministerium der Justiz (ed.), Informationspapier zum Entwurf eines Schuldrechtsmodernisierungsgesetzes (4 Aug 2000,) 3 et seq. (emphasis added).

113. Bundesministerium der Justiz (ed.), Diskussionsentwurf eines Schuldrechtsmodernisierungsgesetzes 4 Apr 2000); see also Ernst/Zimmermann (eds), Rechtswissenschaft und Schuldrechtsreform (2001); Schulze/Schulte-Nölke (eds), Die Schuldrechtsreform vor dem Hintergrund des Gemeinschajisrechts (2001); Pick, (2001) ZIP 1173 et seq.

114. The Ministry of Justice emphasised that under the present law there are more than 130 provisions on limitation periods in over 80 statutes.

115. See Schmidt-Räntsch, op. cit. above n. 111, at 1639.

116. Sec. 280 of the Draft, above n. 123, at 15 provides that ‘if the debtor violates a duty arising out of the contractual relationship, the other party may claim damages caused by the breach. This duty does not arise if that party is not liable for that breach’.

117. See generally Lando, in Festskrift til Birger Stuevold Larssen (1997), at 623 ff.

118. The Law is based on Council Directive 85/577/EEC of 20 Dec 1985 to protect the consumer in respect of contracts negotiated away from business premises, OJEC L 372 of 31 Dec. 1985, at 31 ff.

119. The law is based on Council Directive 94/47/EC of 26 Oct 1994 on the protection of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis, OJEC L 280 of 29 Nov 1994, at 83 ff.

120. The Law is based on Council Directive 87/102/EEC of 22 Dec 1987 for the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning consumer credit, OJEC L 042 of 12 Feb 1987, at 48 ff.

121. The Law is based on Council Directive 97/77/EC of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, OJEC L 144 of 4 June 1997, at 19 ff.

122. The Act contains substantive provisions on the control of general contract conditions as well as procedural provisions on injunctive relief against general contract conditions. The procedural provisions will not be integrated into the Civil Code but will be transferred into a special statute on injunctive relief, see Schmidt-Räntsch, op. cit. above n. 121, at 1643.

123. Bundesministerium der Justiz (Ed.), above n. 112, at p. 14.

124. This was a solution favoured by the German industry, see Schmidt-Räntsch, op. cit. above n. 111, at 1643 ff.

125. Council Directive 97/5/EC of 27 Jan 1997 on cross-border credit transfers, OJEC No. L 043 of 14 Feb. 1997, at 25 ff.

126. Council Directive 98/26/EC of 19 May 1998 on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems, OJEC L 166 of 11 June 1998, at 45 ff.

127. See for the necessity of a Banking Law Code in Germany Berger, in Festschrift Schimansky (1999), at 3 ff.

128. See Bonell, op. cit. above n. 7, at 235 ff.

129. The Working Group of Experts had commissioned a separate expert opinion from Professor Basedow on the reform in the light of the UN Sales law, see Bundesministerium der Justiz (ed.), above n. 112, at 16.

130. Schulze, op. cit. above n. 110, at 375, n. 54.

131. See, eg Bundesministerium der Justiz (Ed.), above n. 112, at 134; in the context of the proposed provision on hardship, reference was made to Italian, Greek, Dutch, Belgian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Swiss, English, French and US law and to Art. 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3 of the (draft) UNIDROIT Principles, idem, 149.

132. See Prantl, op. cit. above n. 101, at 1.

133. Basedow, op. cit. above n. 31, at 3.

134. Acccording to most modern arbitration laws, the parties may choose the ‘rules of law’ (‘régles du droit, ‘Rechtsvorschriften’) applicable to their contract. This includes the choice of transnational legal principles such as the UPICC or the PECL, see Berger, op. cit. above n. 15, at 179; see for the PECL's function as ‘a statement of internationally accepted principles’ for international arbitrators Lando and Beale, op. cit. above n. 6, at XXIV.

135. Blase, (1999) Vindobona Journal 3, 14; cf. also Boele-Woelki, Principles en IPR (1995), 15 ff.

136. Yntema, in Rabel, The Conflict of Laws (1945), at XIII.