According to the author, the ambitions of the reform of Contract Law in France is threefold: to give more accessibility and clarity to French contract law, to strike a good equilibrium between conflicting objectives, to make French law more attractive internationally. This reform is characterised by its openness to external inspirations. This spirit of openness, which forms part of its richness, results from the academic and governmental drafts, from the confrontation of the opinions expressed during the course of many consultations – which made it possible to neutralise the extremes and to reach a certain consensus around balanced positions – and from taking into consideration the European and international context. The author based on the specificities of the civil law tradition, to develop argument for affirmative answer: to the formation – through comparative law and national codifications – of a European common legal culture. The author notes that the French law of obligations has constantly been updated thanks to the creativity of French judges, scholars and also through legislative initiatives which had taken place outside the Code civil (in other Codes or in statutory provisions not inserted in any code). This, however, had made French law difficult to read. For all these reasons, a modernised Code civil was considered the best instrument to promote legal certainty and business efficiency. However, the new French common law of contracts does not make a clean slate of the past. It must find its place within a complex legal environment, which takes account, for reasons of legal certainty, of the contracts concluded previously, but also of the will of the parties and the existence of special legal regimes that it is not intended to alter. A difficult question that has arisen and will certainly give rise to some important decisions by the courts is whether the new rules are mandatory or non-mandatory, a distinction that is characteristic of the civil law tradition. According to the author, the 2018 modernised Code civil, also translated, is now part of Europe’s legal heritage

List of legal documents

Legislation

1. A more coherent European contract law – An action plan: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, COM/2003/0068 <https://eurlex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex:52003DC0068> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in English).

2. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on European contract law (COM(2001) 398) 11.07.2001 <http://ec.europa.eu/ transparency/regdoc/?fuseaction=list&coteId=1&year=2001&number=398&version= ALL&language=en> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in English).

3. Constitution de la République Française du 4 octobre 1958 <https://www.legifrance. gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006071194> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in French).

4. Loi n°2018-287 du 20 avril 2018 ratifiant l’ordonnance n° 2016-131 du 10 février 2016 portant réforme du droit des contrats, du régime général et de la preuve des obligations, JO 21 avril 2018 <https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT 000036825602&categorieLien=id> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in French).

5. Projet de loi n° 578 ratifiant l’ordonnance n° 2016-131 du 10 février 2016 portant réforme du droit des contrats, du régime général et de la preuve des obligations, enregistré à la Présidence du Sénat le 9 juin 2017 <https://www.senat.fr/leg/pjl16-578. html> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in French).

Cases

6. Conseil constitutionnel jeudi 12 février 2015 – Décision N° 2015-710 DC <https://www. legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriConst.do;jsessionid=5ABA65BEE0BF0930914EB5EE42AA 58EC.tpdila18v_2?oldAction=rechJuriConst&idTexte=CONSTEXT000030338431&fas tReqId=649667566&fastPos=2> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in French).

Bibliography

Authored books

7. Terré F, Pour une réforme du droit des contrats (Dalloz 2008) (in French).

Edited books

8. Fauvarque-Cosson B and Mazeaud D, ‘Avant-propos’ in Projet de cadre commun de référence – Terminologie contractuelle commune (SLC 2008) (in French).

9. Gaudemet E, ‘Les codifications récentes et la révision du Code civil’ in Livre du Centenaire (Dalloz 2004) (in French).

10. Larnaude F, ‘Le Code civil et la nécessité de sa révision’ in Livre du Centenaire (Dalloz 2004) (in French).

11. Pilon E, ‘Réforme du Code civil par voie de révision générale’ in Livre du Centenaire (Dalloz 2004) (in French).

12. Planiol M, ‘Inutilité d’une révision générale du Code civil’ in Livre du Centenaire (Dalloz 2004) (in French).

Websites

13. Pierre Catala, ‘Avant projet de réforme du droit des obligations et de la prescriptio’ (Documentation Française, Ministère de la Justice et des Libertés, Juin 2006) <https:// www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/catalogue/9782110061324/index.shtml> (accessed: 10.01.2019) (in French).