European Contract Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights European Contract Law and Theory Series

This is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent to which the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union will influence the development of contract and commercial law at a European level.

The essays in this volume examine how the Court of Justice has already used the Charter to steer the law governing consumer transactions, financial contracts, contracts of employment, self-employment, tenancies, and other contractual arrangements. They then proceed to assess the likely future impact of the Charter on EU contract law, using a variety of legal, historical, and theoretical perspectives.

These original assessments by distinguished scholars range from claims that the Charter will only have a mild indirect influence to arguments that the Charter provides the necessary legal foundations for EU contract law and for a market society within a multi-level system of governance.

Questions are raised about the scope of application of the Charter; its indirect but significant effect on national legal systems, especially in improving the effectiveness of EU law; and whether the rights and principles of the Charter may sometimes have direct effect on contracts by leading a court to disapply national law.

- Building European Contract Law on Charter Rights
- How Autonomous Should Private Law Be? Elements of a Private Law Constitution
- The Constitutional Transformation of Private Law Pillars through the CJEU
- Fundamental Rights before the Court of Justice of the European Union: A Social, Market-Functional or Pluralistic Paradigm?
- Minimum Harmonisation and Article 16 of the CFREU: Difficult Times Ahead for Social Legislation?
- The Right to Housing (Article 7 of the Charter) and Unfair Terms in General Conditions
- The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Consumer Credit: Towards Responsible Lending?
- The Justice Dimensions of the Relationship between Fundamental Rights and Private Law
- Discrimination and the Self-Employed: The Scope of Protection in an Interconnected Age
- The Effects of Fundamental Rights in Private Disputes
- Responsible Contracting: The Requirements of EU Fundamental Rights on Private Law Regimes
- Index

Hugh Collins FBA is the Vinerian Professor of English Law, All Souls College, Oxford.