Statement of the European Law Institute on the Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law Statement of the European Law Institute on the Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law COM(2011) 635 final The European Law Institute The European Law Institute (ELI) is an independent non-profit organisation established to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, make recommendations and provide practical guidance in the field of European legal development. Building on the wealth of diverse legal traditions, its mission is the quest for better law-making in Europe and the enhancement of European legal integration. By its endeavours, ELI seeks to contribute to the formation of a more vigorous European legal community, integrating the achievements of the various legal cultures, endorsing the value of comparative knowledge, and taking a genuinely pan- European perspective. As such its work covers all branches of the law: substantive and procedural; private and public. ELI is committed to the principles of comprehensiveness and collaborative working, thus striving to bridge the oft-perceived gap between the different legal cultures, between public and private law, as well as between scholarship and practice. To further that commitment it seeks to involve a diverse range of personalities, reflecting the richness of the legal traditions, legal disciplines and vocational frameworks found throughout Europe. ELI is also open to the use of different methodological approaches and to canvassing insights and perspectives from as wide an audience as possible of those who share its vision. President: Sir Francis Jacobs Vice-President: Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson Treasurer: Christiane Wendehorst Speaker of the Senate: Irmgard Griss Secretary General: Tobias Schulte in den Bäumen European Law Institute Schottenring 14 1010 Vienna Austria Tel.: + 43 1 4277 22101 Mail: [email protected] Website: www.europeanlawinstitute.eu ISBN: 978-3-9503458-1-0 © European Law Institute 2012 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Following publication of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Common European Sales Law (COM(2011) 635 final) on 11 October 2011, an ELI working party, assisted by an advisory panel, considered the Proposal and comment upon it. Both the working party and the advisory panel consisted of members of the judiciary, legal practitioners and academics, from a broad range of legal traditions. The working party was greatly assisted in its work by comments it received from the ELI Council and Senate over a period of about five months from the run-up to the Council meeting on 18 February 2012 to the final Council decision. The Working Party Chair: Sir John Thomas Sir John Thomas is President of the Queen’s Bench division of the High Court of Justice and a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, The United Kingdom. He serves as the vice-president of the Insurance and Reinsurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS (UK)) and the vice-president of the British Maritime Law Association. He is co-chairman of the Trustees of the International Law Book Facility. Redaction Committee: John Sorabji John Sorabji is a practising barrister and the Legal Secretary to the Master of the Rolls. He is also a Senior Fellow at University College, London’s Judicial Institute and an Honorary Professor in its Faculty of Law, where he lectures on Principles of Civil Justice. He is also an assistant editor of both the Civil Justice Quarterly and of the International Journal of Procedural Law. Matthias Storme (acting also on behalf of the CCBE) Matthias Storme is professor at the KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium) and professor (extra-ord.) at the Universiteit Antwerpen, and an attorney in Brussels. He is the author of approximately 200 books and articles. He is joint editor-in-chief of the European Review of Private Law and editor of the Tijdschrift voor privaatrecht, guest professor at Universiteit Tilburg and CUPL 3 Beijing, and was a member of the Compilation and Redaction Team of the CoPECL network drafting a Common Frame of Reference for European Contract Law (2006-2009). Christiane Wendehorst Christiane Wendehorst is professor of law at the University of Vienna (Austria). She is author of numerous articles in law journals, books and commentaries, in particular in the fields of European Private Law and Private International Law, and member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Tort Law. She sits on the Boards or Scientific Advisory Boards of various academic bodies and associations at a European or national level. She is also Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL). Further Members of the Working Party: Lars Edlund Lars Edlund is a partner at Grönberg. He is one of Sweden’s leading arbitration practitioners and a former vice chairman of the Swedish Arbitration Association. He has been appointed, as from October 2012, as Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden. Mr Edlund has written a number of articles in Svensk Juristtidning, Juridisk Tidskrift, Advokaten and the Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Paul Gilligan (acting also on behalf of ENCJ) Paul Gilligan practised as a barrister in Ireland from 1971 to 2003 when he was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Ireland. He is currently a board member of the Courts Service of Ireland and is the President Elect of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, and will take up office in January, 2013. Rafael Illescas Rafeal Illescas is a professor of commercial law and the director of the master’s programme in private law at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). He has served as Spain’s delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) since 1984, holding various positions including that of a chairman (2008-2009), vice president, rapporteur and the head of a working group. He is a member of editorial boards of numerous scientific publications and author of many books and articles on trade, EU and international commercial law. 4 Pilar Perales Viscasillas Pilar Perales Viscasillas is professor of Commercial Law at University Carlos III of Madrid, and formerly at La Rioja University (Spain). She is a consultant on domestic and international commercial legal matters, of Counsel at Baker & McKenzie (Madrid), and on the panel of many arbitration institutions. She is a delegate for Spain before the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and an observer in the Working Group for the new edition of UNIdROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts. She is a Co-director of the CISG database: Spain and Latin America, and co-director of the Madrid Moot. Peter Limmer (acting also on behalf of CNUE) Peter Limmer is a professor at the University of Würzburg and a civil law notary. He is a member of the executive committee of the Institute for Notarial Studies at the University Würzburg, a director of the German Institute of Notaries and of the Europe-office of the Bundesnotarkammer in Brussels. He is also a member of the Common Frame of Reference (CFR)-Net (Network of Stakeholders) and of the “Sounding-board” of the European Commission. He was a member of the European Contract Law Panel at the European Parliament (2004-2006). He is the Chairman of the European Contract Law working group of the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) in Brussels. He is also a member of the editorial boards of various scientific law journals. Fryderyk Zoll Fryderyk Zoll is a professor of the civil law at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow (Poland), a visiting professor in Kiel (Germany) and a professor of the European, Polish and comparative private law at the University of Osnabrück (Germany). He is a member of the Codification Commission at the Polish Ministry of Justice. He has acted as a foreign law expert at the English High Court, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Arbitration Tribunal in the Hague. He was a member of the Research Group on the Existing EC Private Law (Acquis Group) and a research coordinator of the Research Group on the EU Project – the Perspectives of the Europeanization of the Law of Succession. 5 The Advisory Panel Special Advisor: Ole Lando Ole Lando is professor emeritus of Copenhagen Business School in Frederiksberg (Denmark). He is the founder and the chairman of the Commission on European Contract Law (CECL), often referred to as the Lando-Commission. Professor Lando is a member of UNIdROIT Working Group on International Commercial Contracts, Finnish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Uppsala, Groupe européen de droit international privé and Academia Europea, amongst others. Further Members of the Advisory Panel: Carole Aubert de Vincelles Carole Aubert de Vincelles is a professor of private law at the Cergy-Pontoise University (France). She is a co-founder and general counsel of Trans Europe Experts, a European network of legal experts. She is also a member of the European Research Group on Existing EC Private Law (Acquis Group) and has participated in the working group on the French reform of contract law. She has supervised several books on the European law of obligations and has published many articles on contract law. She authors a European consumer law chronicle in the Revue des contrats and a European law of obligations chronicle in the Revue trimestrielle de droit européen. Fabrizio Cafaggi Fabrizio Cafaggi is a professor of comparative law at the European University Institute and the director of Center for Judicial Cooperation. He is a member of the American Law Institute. Remo Caponi Remo Caponi is a full professor of civil procedure at the University of Florence (Italy).