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Dear reader, This issue of Juridica International is based on the presentations made at the inter- national conference titled ‘European Initiatives (CFR) and Reform of Civil Law in New Member States’, held in Tartu on 15–16 November 2007. However, this issue of the journal not only serves to publish the materials of the conference but also offers several other articles that, while they were not presented at the conference, are closely related to the topic of the conference. The conference served two main objectives: fi rst, to address the signifi cant issues of the Common Frame of Reference (CFR) project and, second, to analyse the development of civil legislation in the new member states of the European Union and what the effect of the so-called model laws (PECL, UNIDROIT Principles, and CFR) has been here. The conference was attended by many who participated in the preparation of the Draft Common Frame of Reference, such as the Study Group on a European Civil Code’s Chairman Professor Christian von Bar and members Pro- fessor Hugh Beale, Professor Anna Veneziano, Professor Jerzy Rajski, Dr. Stephen Swann, Professor Luboš Tichý, Professor Christian Takoff, and Professor Valentinas Mikelenas, as well as, from the Research Group on EC Private Law (the Acquis Group), Chairman Professor Hans Schulte-Nölke and members Professor Thomas Wilhelmsson and Professor Fryderyk Zoll. Presentations on the development of civil law in new Member States were made by Professor Jerzy Rajski (covering Poland), Professor András Kisfaludi (Hungary), Professor Valentinas Mikelenas (Lithuania), Professor Luboš Tichý (the Czech Republic), Dr. Damjan Možina (Slovenia), Professor Kalvis Torgans (Latvia), Professor Irene Kull (Estonia), Dr. Monika Jurčová (Slovakia), and Professor Christian Takoff (Bulgaria). In addition to the above, well-known experts in the fi eld also made presentations, among them Professor Norbert Reich and Professor Walter van Gerven. As a direct relation to the topic of the conference, the current issue of the journal also offers the reader the articles of Study Group members Professor Eric Clive, Professor Matthias E. Storme, and Professor Kåre Lilleholt, in addition to Dr. Mónika Józon’s article on the develop- ment of civil law in Romania and articles by the Estonian jurists Dr. Martin Käerdi, Dr. Margus Kingisepp, and member of the Supreme Court Villu Kõve. One of the main conclusions drawn at the conference was that, at the present point in time, the CFR is of crucial importance mainly for those of the new Member States that are engaged in reforming their civil legislation. Yet the meaning of the CFR cannot be reduced to only being a means in the legislative drafting of coun- tries. The CFR mainly expresses the development of the concept of civil law in Europe, and in the future the CFR should have a central meaning in the formation of a harmonised judicial area in the European Union. What added most defi nitely to the conference was that many representatives of the ministries of justice of the European Union’s Member States also attended. One of the major objectives of the conference was to introduce the ideas of the CFR to the representatives of the Mem- ber States; this objective was well attained. This issue of the journal also contains the paper by Dr. Norbert Csizmazia, the representative of the Hungarian Ministry of Justice who attended the conference. I would especially like to highlight the contri- bution made by Professor Hugh Beale, who made three presentations at the confer- ence and, accordingly, is represented in the journal with three articles as well. In relation to the successful organisation and realisation of the practicalities of the conference, I would also like to express my greatest gratitude, in addition to the speakers and participants, to Professor Christian von Bar and Professor Norbert Reich, whose initiative and ideas made the conference a success. Both Professor von Bar and Professor Reich are the co-editors of this issue of Juridica Interna- tional. My gratitude also goes to Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the University of Tartu, and the European Legal Studies Institute for fi nancial support in the preparation of this issue of the journal. Paul Varul JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL XIV/2008 1 Contents: Christian von Bar The Launch of the Draft Common Frame of Reference 4 Hugh Beale The Nature and Purposes of the Common Frame of Reference 10 Eric Clive European Initiatives (CFR) and Reform of Civil Law in New 18 Member States: Differences between the Draft Common Frame of Reference and the Principles of European Contract Law Hans Schulte-Nölke From the Acquis Communautaire to the Common Frame 27 of Reference — the Contribution of the Acquis Group to the DCFR Walter van Gerven The Open Method of Convergence 32 Hugh Beale Pre-contractual Obligations: The General Contract Law Background 42 Thomas Wilhelmsson Various Approaches to Unfair Terms and Their Background 51 Philosophies Norbert Reich, Unfair Terms in the Draft Common Frame of Reference 58 Hans-W. Micklitz (Comments on the Occasion of the Tartu Conference on Recent Development in European Private Law) 58 Fryderyk Zoll Unfair Terms in the Acquis Principles and Draft Common Frame 69 of Reference: A Study of the Differences between the Two Closest Members of One Family Matthias E. Storme The Structure of the Law on Multiparty Situations in the Draft 78 Common Frame of Reference Anna Veneziano A Secured Transactions’ Regime for Europe: Treatment 89 of Acquisition Finance Devices and Creditor’s Enforcement Rights Hugh Beale Secured Transactions 96 2 JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL XIV/2008 Contents Paul Varul Performance and Remedies for Non-performance: 104 Comparative Analysis of the PECL and DCFR Kåre Lilleholt The Draft Common Frame of Reference and “Cancellation” 111 of Contracts Christian Takoff The Present State of Harmonisation of Bulgarian Private Law, 118 and Future Perspectives: Historical Development and Scope of the Private Law — Compliance with European Private Law Irene Kull Reform of Contract Law in Estonia: Infl uences of Harmonisation 122 of European Private Law András Kisfaludi The Infl uence of Harmonisation of Private Law 130 on the Development of the Civil Law in Hungary Kalvis Torgans European Initiatives (PECL, DCFR) and Modernisation 137 of Latvian Civil Law Valentinas Mikelenas The Infl uence of Instruments of Harmonisation of Private Law 143 upon the Reform of Civil Law in Lithuania Jerzy Rajski European Initiatives and Reform of Civil Law in Poland 151 Mónika Józon Integration of the European Developments in Private Law 156 into Domestic Civil Law: Factors Framing the Reception of the DCFR in Romania Monika Jurčová The Infl uence of Harmonisation on Civil Law in the Slovak Republic 166 Damjan Možina Harmonisation of Private Law in Europe and the Development 173 of Private Law in Slovenia Norbert Csizmazia Reform of the Hungarian Law of Security Rights in Movable 181 Property Villu Kõve Draft Common Frame of Reference and Estonian Law 199 of Obligations Act: Similarities and Differences in the System of Contractual Liability Martin Käerdi The Development of the Concept of Pre-contractual Duties 209 in Estonian Law Margus Kingisepp The European Consumer Sales Directive — the Impact on 219 Estonian Law JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL XIV/2008 3 Christian von Bar Professor, University of Osnabrück The Launch of the Draft Common Frame of Reference 1. The interim outline edition as a first step Two months after the Tartu conference of 15 November 2007 on ‘Developments in European Law: European Initiatives (CFR) and Reform of Civil Law in New Member States’, the academic draft of that Common Frame of Reference (CFR) has now seen the light of day.*1 The teams of researchers that in 2005 contracted with the European Commission to deliver by the end of 2007 a fi rst proposal have managed to keep their promise. On 21 January, at a launch in the European Parliament, the interim outline edition of the Draft CFR (DCFR) was presented in book form to the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and to the European Presidency, which was represented by Slovenian Minister of Justice Professor Lovro turm. Our publishers, Patrick Sellier and his team, had produced a preliminary (proof) version of the book in less than four weeks. The editors of the DCFR had already sent huge electronic fi les to the European Commission in the last days of the previous year; these turned out to be too big for a simple e-mail attachment, so copies had to be sent burned onto a DVD. Their contents were meant to be uploaded in part to the Commission’s CIRCA Web site, but even this proved diffi cult, and it took weeks before that actually happened. In book form, the DCFR is being published fi rst in an interim outline edition. That edition does not yet contain comments and notes, and it is also not complete in its section setting out the model rules. This is so because model rules concerning some specifi c contract types (such as loans and donations) are still missing, as are all the model rules on those matters of property law that we intend to cover in the full and fi nal edition: acquisi- tion and loss of ownership in movables, proprietary security rights in movable assets, and trust law. The European Commission has already received an extensive and illustrative commentary to all the model rules contained in the interim outline edition, and we have also submitted to the commission all the compara- tive material that so far we have been able to collect and present in the notes — all in all (articles, comments, and notes) some 4,000 pages. The comments are available to every member of the CFR network who has access to the Commission’s CIRCA Web site.