After an extended period in which the European Community has merely nibbled at the edges of national contract law, the bite of a European contract law has lately become more pronounced. Many areas of law, from competition and consumer law to gender equality law, are now the subject of determined efforts at harmonization, though they are perhaps often seen as peripheral to mainstream commercial contract law. Despite continuing doubts about the constitutional competence of the Commission to embark on further harmonization in this area, European contract law is now taking shape with the...

This book honors the influential and wide-ranging work of Professor Hugh Beale of Warwick University. The festschrift contains essays by 25 very distinguished authors, each of whom has worked with Professor Beale as a co-author and/or as a teaching colleague during his time as Law Commissioner of England and Wales, or as part of the study groups working in Europe on contract and commercial law. The essays reflect different aspects of Professor Beale's interests. Some concentrate on English contract law, either from a historical or a current perspective, while others are focused on aspects of...