Principles of European Contract Law

The Principles of European Contract Law is a set of model rules drawn up by leading contract law academics in Europe. It attempts to elucidate basic rules of contract law and more generally the law of obligations which most legal systems of the member states of the European Union hold in common. The Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) are based on the concept of a uniform European contract law system, and were created by the self-styled Commission on European Contract Law set up by Ole Lando ("Lando Commission"). The PECL take into account the requirements of the European domestic trade.

In the broader sense the PECL are a "set of general rules which are designed to provide maximum flexibility and thus accommodate future development in legal thinking in the field of contract law."

The impetus for the work on the PECL were resolutions of the European Parliament of 1989 and 1994 which expressed the desire to establish a common European civil law. As an initial foundation, a common contract law was to be first created.

Probably the first response was Harvey McGregor's 1993 "Contract Code" which was produced in response to a request from the English and Scots Law Commission for proposals for the possible codification of a combined law of contract for England and Scotland. McGregor made this work available to the EU, who seemingly ignored it.

Instead, the Commission on European Contract Law (an organisation independent from any national obligations) started work in 1982 under the chairmanship of Ole Lando, a lawyer and professor from Denmark. The Commission consisted of 22 members from all member states of the European Union and was partly financed by the EU. In the year 1995 the first part of the PECL was published; since 1999 the second part has been available and the third part was completed in 2002.

Today, the work of the Commission on European Contract Law is continued by the Study Group on a European Civil Code. The Group is managed by Christian von Bar, a German law professor. The Group was founded in 2005.

The PECL were inspired by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) from 1980; however, they are a so-called Soft Law, such as the American Restatement of the Law of Contract, which is supposed to restate the Common Law of the United States. Therefore, the PECL do not represent a legally enforceable regulation: "The term 'soft law' is a blanket term for all sorts of rules, which are not enforced on behalf of the state, but are seen, for example, as goals to be achieved."

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