Precontractual Duties and Conclusion of Contract in European Law

For the future development of European contract law, one can extract from existing Community law not only fundamental principles like freedom of contract, nondiscrimination on grounds of race, ethnic origin or gender and the protection of contractual parity in situations of structural imbalance. Moreover, the underlying principles of contract law provisions of Community law also form the basis for a set of rules for precontractual duties and formation of contract, which in some respects have innovative features in comparison with the traditional laws of most member states, for example in respect of information duties, the binding effect of precontractual statements and the rights of withdrawal. The planned Common Frame of Reference for European contract law will thus be able to build both on common traditions of the member states and on the autonomous principles of the Acquis communautaire.