Towards a European Civil Code

On its first appearance in 1994, Towards a European Civil Code ushered in the new field of European private law. After its publication a great number of major events took place. To mention only a few: both the UNIDROIT and the Lando Commission published their Principles; Markesinis published a book on the gradual convergence of common law and civil law in Europe, Kötz and Von Bar published the first book on European Contract Law, and European Tort Law, respectively; the Trento Project on The Common Core of Private Law in Europe was commenced by Mattei and Bussani; and an international conference was held in The Hague under the very title Towards a European Civil Code. These events, and indeed many others, convinced us that the idea of a commonly held civil code for Europe is not as bold as it might have seemed when we started preparations for the first edition of this book in 1991. European private law has become an established field of research in which many eminent scholars from all over Europe are involved. Courses on European private law are taught at several European universities.

All these events - and the commercial success of the first edition - call for this second edition, which differs from the first in several respects. First, we have added several new subjects, which have increased the number of chapters from 23 to 36. Secondly, we no longer asked the contributors to discuss the feasibility of a European civil code - except for a few chapters which deal with completely new topics - but instead to directly address the possible content of common rules. Thirdly, we are glad to welcome some new authors for some of the subjects already included in the first edition. Finally, all chapters have been updated.