oxford law - the faculty and its members : eric descheemaeker

Eric Descheemaeker is a fellow and tutor in law at St Catherine’s College, where he teaches Roman Law, Constitutional Law, Torts and European Law. He studied law in Paris (Université Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne: licence, 1998; maîtrise, 1999; DEA de droit privé, 2001), Berlin (Humboldt Universität: visiting student, 1999) and London (London School of Economics: LL.M., 2000) before coming to Oxford to read for a DPhil. His thesis on “The Division of Wrongs”, a comparative study of the structure of the law of civil wrongs in the civilian and common-law traditions, was submitted in 2005. His research interests lie primarily in the comparative law of tort in English, French and Roman law, as well as legal history and legal taxonomy.

Subject groups : Roman Law : European Community Law

English Abstract: Is it necessary to codify the private law of contracts in Europe? The question, the author argues, breaks down into three sub-questions. First, is such a codification conceivable, that is, does it make sense to claim to envision it? Next, is it desirable? And finally, is it realizable? The demand for codification would imply that one should answer these three questions affirmatively. According to the author this is not the case, however, because even if it is conceivable to create a legal instrument common to countries with distinct legal traditions and epistemologies (notably the civil and the common law), the arguments in favour of such a project are outweighed by those against it, notably issues of costs and uselessness. Above all, the idea of "Europeanizing" the law of contracts betrays a certain lack of understanding of the nature of law. In effect, not only is it impossible to set out in a uniform manner the same norm in several different systems, especially if they use different languages, but also the interior dependence of each of these systems of contract law on other branches of law and on national legal science makes the creation of a uniform contract law in Europe radically impossible.

URL: http://www.journal.law.mcgill.ca/abs/vol47/4desch.html

ISBN: 0024-9041

E Descheemaeker, 'Mapping the Common Law: On a Recent English Attempt and its Links with Scottish Jurisprudence' (2003) 2003(4) Juridical Review 295-311