Reforming The French Law Of Obligations

The 2005 Avant-projet de réforme du droit des obligations et de la prescription, also dubbed the Avant-projet Catala, suggests the most far-reaching reform of the French Civil code since it came into force in 1804. It reviews central aspects of contract law, the law of delict and the law of unjustified enrichment. There is currently a very lively debate in France as to the merits or the demerits of both the particular draft provisions and the general idea of recodification as such. This volume is the first publication to introduce the reform proposals to an English speaking audience. It contains the official English translation of the text, and distinguished private lawyers from both England and France analyse and assess particularly interesting aspects of the substantive draft provisions in a comparative perspective. Topics covered include negotiation and renegotiation of contracts, la cause, the enforcement of contractual obligations, termination of contract and its consequences, the effects of contracts on third parties, the definition of la faute, the quantification of damages, and the law of prescription. The volume also contains an overall assessment of the draft provisions by one of the most senior French judges who chaired the Working Party on the Avant-projet, established by the French Supreme Court, the Cour de cassation. The book is indispensable for comparative private lawyers and lawyers with a particular interest in French law. It is also of use to all private lawyers (both academics and practitioners) looking for information on recent international and European trends in contract and tort.

The provisions of the French Civil Code governing the law of obligations have remained largely unchanged since 1804 and have served as the model for civil codes across the world. In 2016, the French Government effected major reforms of the provisions on the law of contract, the general regime of obligations and proof of obligations. This work explores in detail the most interesting new provisions on French contract law in a series of essays by French lawyers and comparative lawyers working on French law and other civil law systems. It will make these fundamental reforms accessible to an English-speaking audience.

This book results from the Contract Law Workshop of the 20th Ius Commune Conference held 26-27 November 2015. The theme of this Workshop was: The French Contract Law Reform: a Source of Inspiration? Since the conference in November 2015, all authors have incorporated comments on the final version of the ordonnance.

Les contributions rassemblées dans cet ouvrage ont été présentées à l'Institut Max Planck pour le droit comparé et le droit international privé de Hambourg (Allemagne) les 1er et 2 novembre 2012. Elles ont trait aux réformes des droits français et allemand. Les différents thèmes abordés ont été choisis avec pour arrière-plan la concurrence normative dans l'Union européenne et avec pour projet de mettre à l'épreuve l'hypothèse selon laquelle les réformes nationales sont influencées par l'évolution du droit de l'Union européenne ainsi que par celle des autres droits nationaux. Précisément, l'ouvrage vise à donner un aperçu des réformes françaises et allemandes dans les champs du droit dans lesquels la concurrence normative apparaît la plus vive : le droit des obligations, le droit des sociétés et le droit des entreprises en difficultés. Rédigé en anglais et en français, nourri de remarques comparatives, ce livre a pour ambition d'aider à mieux comprendre le processus contemporain de fabrication du droit dans l'Union européenne.

After being almost untouched for over 200 years, the contract law section of the French Civil Code was overhauled in 2016 and 2018. The New French Law of Contract describes, explains and analyses the new general principles of contract law in the reformed Code in a concise and stimulating way. The areas covered include contract formation, validity, the interpretation and supplementation of terms, the regulation of unfair terms, privity of contract, change of circumstances, breach of contract and remedies. The book examines the ways in which the new articles affirm or depart from the provisions of the 1804 Code and pre-reform case law, giving special attention to changes that have proved to be controversial and the debates that surround them. It also considers the various influences that have shaped the reforms, in particular those from international contract law instruments such as the Principle of European Contract Law and the UNIDROIT Principles. Written from the standpoint of a common lawyer, the book is designed to help readers from a common law background to navigate the innovations in the reforms and the new French law of contract that emerges. It is essential reading for students, researchers, practitioners, law-makers and judges with an interest in comparative law.

The French law of torts or of extra-contractual liability is widely seen as exceptional. For long it was based on a mere five articles of the Civil Code of 1804, but on this foundation the courts and legal scholars have constructed liabilities for fault and strict liability of an extraordinary breadth and significance. While the rest of the general law of obligations (including contract) in the Civil Code was reformed in 2016 by executive ordonnance, this area was left aside, being the subject in 2017 of a proposal by the French Government for the legislative reform of the law of civil liability, a new legislative category to include both contractual and extra-contractual liability. This work considers important aspects of this developing area of French law in a series of essays by French lawyers and comparative lawyers working in French law and other civil law systems. In doing so, it provides insight into the doctrinal thinking and judgments of French lawyers as well as the possible directions in which this area of the law may be developed in the future.

This book describes and explains how the so-called system of legal proofs, which consisted of a strict set of evidentiary rules, was replaced with the free evaluation of the evidence in France, Germany and the Netherlands between 1750 and 1870.