In the last 10-20 years, a term such as European law is often found in legal literature. For the first time such a phrase appeared in the 50s of the last century, but, despite the fact that quite a few years have passed since then, there is no single interpretation of this concept among scientists. Therefore, approaches to understanding this complex set of legal phenomena among different legal scholars can vary greatly. However, few deny that contract law is one of the basic foundations of this multifaceted phenomenon.
Of course, the national legal systems of many European states do not coincide in many respects, primarily because historically they were formed on different foundations - Romanesque, Anglo-Saxon, German ... However, the emergence of the European Union and the ever closer convergence of the countries of the region as in political and cultural, as well as economic, and the strengthening of supranational institutions increasingly leads to the fact that the borders between different types of regulation of law are erased, and these forms themselves are intertwined, riobretaya interrelated. The presence of such a common space in the legal field is particularly promoted by contract law.
First of all, this term is used to refer to the entire integrity of treaties between different European states, including multilateral ones. Thus, we can say that this branch of relations between countries is regulated according to the principles of international, in this case regional, law. However, it was necessary to turn this system into the dominant in Europe. It was necessary to adapt to each other the many differences that contract law has in each of the national legislative systems. For this, a special Commission was created, headed by the famous Danish lawyer Ole Land.
This Commission was primarily concerned with studying and comparing the basic norms traditional for each country in order to assess whether they are suitable for consolidation within the framework of the general legal framework of the European Union. For this purpose, the elements of other developed world systems for the implementation of agreements were also analyzed. This work at first was purely academic, scientific in nature, but pretty quickly it became clear that its fruits can be very well applied in practice. Therefore, in 1999, the results of the Commission's work were recognized as part of EU law. This is how the Principles of European Contract Law arose.
Briefly, they can be described as follows. First, the promise made in the contract process must be fulfilled, and the mutual obligations entered into must be respected (pacta sunt servanda). In addition, the contract law set forth in the Principles requires each of the parties to demonstrate that it has clear and rigorous intentions to conclude this particular agreement, and that the other party can, according to “reasonable grounds”, expect some clearly expressed actions (bona fide ) And finally, in the presence of the above reasons, the contract is considered valid, regardless of its form, as well as whether it is concluded in writing or verbally, and from the moment it is delivered to the addressee.
Sometimes the legal standards arising from these Principles are also called the EU Commercial Code, because they are mainly used in the industry that regulates business and trade. Some researchers believe that in this way, on the territory of a huge supranational conglomerate, which is the European Union, the traditional concept of lex mercatoria is revived. It, like other sources of contract law, helps to overcome obstacles that hinder the development of the economy and, through fair trade, to improve, as Montesquieu had suggested, "the morals of peoples."