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Modernising and Harmonising Consumer Contract Law Modernising and Harmonising Consumer Contract Law edited by Geraint Howells Reiner Schulze ISBN 978-3-86653-082-9 The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de © 2009 by sellier. european law publishers GmbH, Munich. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. Design: Sandra Sellier, Munich. Production: Karina Hack, Munich. Typeface: Goudy Old Style and Goudy Sans from Linotype. Printing and binding: Friedrich Pustet KG, Regensburg. Printed on acid-free, non-ageing paper. Printed in Germany. 8Foreword In October 2008 the European Commission published the Proposal for a Consumer Rights Directive; a Proposal that suggests far-reaching changes to the core of consumer contract law. Four current directives shall be replaced by a new, overarching piece of legislation and in doing so full harmonisation should for the most part take the place of the minimum standard presently in force in the European Union. In January 2009, legal experts from universities, practice and the civil service met in Manchester to address the question of the extent to which this Proposal can contribute to the modernisation and harmonisation of European consumer contract law. This event was organised under the auspices of the Consumer Law Academic Network (CLAN) jointly by the Manchester University Law School and Münster’s Centre for European Private Law and benefited from support from the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Domestic and General and the Acquis Group. The papers presented at this conference analysed, criticised and suggested improvements for the Proposal and are published in this volume. The editors would like to thank the contributors and the publisher for their efforts in making the publication possible in such an exceptionally short period. The results from this conference are thereby timely for the further discussions on a Consumer Rights Directive. Further thanks are due to Eric Sitbon, legislative officer at DG SANCO, and Graham Branton of BERR for their important contributions and valued participation at the conference. The editors would like to particularly thank David Kraft and Jonathon Watson for their conscientiousness and commendable dedication to the organisation of the conference and co-ordination of this publication, as well as Joana Tolle for her assistance. Manchester/Münster, January 2009 Geraint Howells and Reiner Schulze 9Contributors Hugh Beale Professor of Law, University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Roger Brownsword Professor of Law and Director of TELOS at the School of Law, King’s College London and Honorary Professor in Law at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom Geraint Howells Professor of Commercial Law, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Barrister, Gough Square Chambers, United Kingdom Marco Loos Professor of Private Law, in particular of European Consumer Law, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; associated with the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law of that university Vanessa Mak Post-doctoral fellow, Tilburg Institute of Comparative and Transnational Law (TICOM), Tilburg University, The Netherlands Hans-W. Micklitz Professor of Economic Law, European University Institute, Florence, Italy Annette Nordhausen Scholes Lecturer in law, University of Manchester, United Kingdom Christine Riefa Brunel Unive