Progress in EU contract law
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Mindy CHEN-WISHART and Prince SAPRAI (eds), Research handbook on the philosophy of contract law, Gloucestershire ; Massachusetts : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, pp. 236–251
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HESSELINK, Martijn Willem, Progress in EU contract law, in Mindy CHEN-WISHART and Prince SAPRAI (eds), Research handbook on the philosophy of contract law, Gloucestershire ; Massachusetts : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, pp. 236–251 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/92721
Abstract
This chapter aims to contribute to the elucidation of the philosophical foundations of EU con- tract law through a critical discussion of different understandings of progress in EU contract law and their respective implications. Claims about progress and regress invariably refer to a normative or evaluative standard. Such standards, it is usually understood, allow us – back- ward looking – to take stock and determine how much progress (in our case) EU contract law has made, and provide us – forward looking – with a sense of where – in our case – EU contract law should be going. Therefore, the core normative question in this contribution is: what if anything should count as progress in EU contract law? An underlying theme will be the differ- ence between teleological (result-oriented) and deontological (duty-oriented) understandings of progress. The chapter starts by addressing understandings of progress that are immanent to EU contract law, i.e., ones that can plausibly be attributed to the EU (Sections II–V). It, then, moves on to consider external standards for progress that have been suggested in the literature (Sections VI–VII). Finally, it confronts recent critiques of the very idea of progress and its implications for EU contract law and its study (Sections VIII–IX). Throughout, the main focus will be on consumer contracts. However, much of the analysis also applies to other contracts governed by EU law.
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Published: 22 April 2025