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Contract law in the light of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR)
Commissioner
Professor Hector MacQueen
Team members
Mr Charles Garland, Project Manager
Ms Rebecca Reid, Legal Assistant
This project is included as a long-term project in our Eighth Programme of Law Reform.
The Commission has already carried out a substantial amount of work on contract law topics at different points in its existence. Not all of it has been implemented, despite attracting support when the reports were first published. The publication in 2009 of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), which is a contemporary statement of contract law, based on comparative research from across the European Union and written in accessible English, offers a new and valuable opportunity to review some of the topics on which we have already worked and to examine the law in other, related areas too.
The areas of work contained in unimplemented reports which we intend to review are:
- Formation of Contract: Scottish Law and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Scot Law Com No 144, 1993)
- Report on Interpretation in Private Law (Scot Law Com No 160, 1997)
- Report on Remedies for Breach of Contract (Scot Law Com No 174, 1999)
The recommendations in these reports relate to areas all of which remain difficult or uncertain in the Scots law of contract, and are thus worth revisiting with the benefit of the DCFR. A further report, on Penalty Clauses (Scot Law Com No 171, 1999), remains suitable for implementation as it stands and it is not thought that further review is needed on this particular topic. The Scottish Government has recently issued a consultation paper on penalty clauses, seeking comments on the recommendations on our 1999 Report, with responses due by 8 September 2010.
We intend, first of all, to focus our attention on issues concerning the formation and interpretation of contracts, beginning with interpretation.
For more information, please contact: charles.garland@scotlawcom.gsi.gov.uk
Page last updated: 19 July 2010
