Comparative and international law has traditionally played a relatively minor role in legal education and research. J Recent years, however, have seen an increasing interest in comparative law, in particular in Europe, where its protagonists are involved in a vivid debate over the harmonisation of national private law systems. In the following remarks, I will, on the basis of one particular example, try to illustrate the type of comparative legal research that supports this debate. Before doing so, I will briefly present the different drivingforces that contribute to the harmonisation ofEuropean private law systems.