Introduction

Abstract

The Commission of the European Union has identified divergences between the Member States’ national contract laws as an obstacle to the completion of the European Internal Market and put this issue on its highest political agenda. Among the different solutions proposed by the European Commission was that of creating an optional instrument for European contract law (OI). Since then, there have been further political developments. The Commission’s most recent policy initiative for European contract law is its proposal for a Common European Sales Law (CESL). This proposal is less ambitious in scope than the previously discussed optional European contract law. The CESL is nonetheless described as a possible first, albeit modest step towards an optional European contract law. For this reason and because the introduction of a comprehensive optional European contract code has been the main policy option under discussion for European contract law over the past decades, the idea of such a code remains relevant.