The European codification project has gathered pace rapidly in recent times. This book considers the codification project in light of a series of broader analytical frameworks (comparative, historical, and constitutional) which make modern codification intelligible. This new reading renders the European codification project (currently being promoted through the common frame of reference and the optional sales law code proposal) vulnerable to constitutionally grounded criticism, traceable to normative considerations of private law authority and legitimacy. The book reconstructs the European...