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Contract Law in Germany

verfasst von : Hannes Henke

Erschienen in: Are Legal Systems Converging or Diverging?

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Contract law in Germany is regulated by the German Civil Code, which is over 120 years old. Nevertheless, contract law in particular has been the subject of far-reaching reforms since the beginning of the 2000s, such as through the Act on the Modernisation of the Law of Obligations of 2001. About 20 years later, due to developments in the field of digitalisation, another major reform took place. Both reforms were significantly influenced by a process of harmonisation within the European Union. At the same time, the early twenty-first century was marked by various crises, such as the financial crisis, Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about profound social changes. Against this backdrop, this chapter examines the influence the aforementioned crises have had on the developments in contract law and, in particular, on the process of legal convergence within the European Union. It is shown that there is a clear convergence of national legal systems in contract law, although crises only have a minor impact on this.

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See, for example, Tröger (2014), p. 57.

See Finke (2020), pp. 152 et seq.

Dannemann and Schulze (2020), para. 22.

Säcker (2021), para. 16.

See, for example, the Act on Protection against Dismissal for Lease Agreements of Residential Spaces of 1971, BGBl. 1971 I, p. 1839, and the second Act on Protection against Dismissal for Lease Agreements of Residential Spaces of 1974, BGBl. 1974 I, p. 3603.

BGBl. 1976 I, p. 3317.

BGBl. 1979 I, p. 509.

BGBl. 2001 I, p. 3137.

Schuldrechtskommission (1992), pp. 16 et seq.

Schuldrechtskommission (1992), p. 26.

Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees.

Directive 2000/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on combating late payment in commercial transactions.

Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market.

See Bundestag document 14/6040, pp. 79; 86.

Finkenauer (2022), § 313 BGB para. 23 et seq.

Reichsgericht, judgement of 3 February 1922, RGZ 103, p. 332; Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 14 July 1953, case V ZR 72/52; Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 25 September 1997, case II ZR 269/96.

See Mankowski (2021), Art. 79 CISG para. 41.

Schuldrechtskommission (1992), p. 149.

Bundestag document 14/6040, p. 175.

Ibid, p. 174.

Ibid.

See, for example, Ernst (2022), para. 28 et seq.

Finkenauer (2022), para. 209; Tröger (2014), p. 51 et seq.

However, German courts have not taken a special path with this. For comparable case law in Portugal, see Supreme Court of Justice Ruling of 23 January 2014, case 1117/10.9TVLSB.P1.S1 (reporting judge: Granja da Fonseca).

Superior Court of Justice Berlin, judgement of 5 November 2012 - case 8 U 171/11; Regional Court Dortmund, judgment of 21 April 2010 - case 20 O 26/09; Regional Court Kaiserslautern, judgement of 13 January 2010 – case 4 O 260/09.

See the comparable legal situation in France, Borghetti (2021), pp. 516–523.

Schulze (2020), para. 10.

See Ernst (2022), para. 13.

Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments.

Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market.

Council Directive 87/102/EEC of 22 December 1986 for the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning consumer credit.

See Green Book on Financial Services: Protecting Consumer Interests, COM (96) 209.

Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on credit agreements for consumers.

Grundmann, Atamer (2011), pp. 12 et seq.

See Cherednychenko (2011), pp. 221 et seq.

Winterfeld and Rümker (2017), para. 9.

Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms.

Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms.

See Recital 1 Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and Recital 79 Directive No 2013/36/EU.

FSB, Consumer Finance Protection with particular focus on credit, 26 October 2011, https://www.fsb.org/wp-content/uploads/r_111026a.pdf.

Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property.

See Recital 3 Mortgage Credit Directive.

Comana et al. (2019), p. 2.

Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments.

Comana et al. (2019), pp. 141 et seq.

Ibid, p. 148.

Piwowarski (2020), p. 147.

Poelzig (2022), para. 3.

Ibid, para. 224.

Gressler (2016), pp. 122 et seq.; Köndgen (2011), pp. 38 et seq.

On the problematic relationship see Haar (2011), pp. 273 et seq.

Poelzig (2022), para. 226; Zahrte (2019), para. 109.

See Articles 1 and 2 of the Protocol (No 22) of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union on the position of Denmark, OJ 2008 C 155, pp. 299 et seq.

Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations.

Article 66(a) of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (2019)/C 384/01.

Dickinson (2016), p. 203; Ungerer (2019), p. 403; Lehmann and Zetzsche (2017), pp. 64 et seq.

Rüscher (2018), p. 941; Grupp (2017), p. 2066; Paulus (2020), § 10 para. 36 et seq.

Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 8 February1984 - case VIII ZR 254/8; Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 6 July 2000 – case I ZR 243/97; Finkenauer (2022), § 313 BGB para. 232.

Hirte and Schmidt-Kessel (2020), para. 153 et seq.

Ibid, para. 151 et seq.

Armbrüster (2021), para. 30 et seq.

See Grupp (2017), pp. 2065 et seq.

Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 12 January 2022 – case XII ZR 8/21, para. 55; see also Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 2 March 2022 – case XII ZR 36/21, para. 32.

See Prütting (2020), pp. 47 et seq.

Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 12 January 2022 – case XII ZR 8/21, para. 45, translation by the author; see also Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 2 March 2022 – case XII ZR 36/21, para. 30.

Oehm (2020), para. 2; Finkenauer (2022), para. 41 et seq.

Federal Court of Justice, judgement of 12 January 2022 – case XII ZR 8/21, para. 48.

Available at: https://www.europeanlawinstitute.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/p_eli/Publications/ELI_Principles_for_the_COVID-19_Crisis.pdf.

Wagner (2020), pp. 536 et seq.

Schmidt-Kessel and Möllnitz (2021), pp. 699–718.

Tonner (2021), Art. 240 § 6 EGBGB para. 5.

Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements.

C(2020) 3125 final.

See explicitly in the corresponding motion, No. 403/A XXVII. GP, p. 43.

See § 2 of the Federal Law on Accompanying Measures to Covid-19 in the Judiciary, BGBl. I Nr. 24/2020.

Luna and Salvador Coderch (2021), pp. 836 et seq.

See Ganuza and Gómez Pomar (2021), pp. 577 et seq.

Available at: https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/Corona-Pandemie.pdf.

Directive (EU) 2019/770 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services.

Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the sale of goods.

See, for example, Recital 3 of the Digital Content Directive and Article 3 of the Sale of Goods Directive.

Article 4 of the Sale of Goods Directive and Art. 4 of the Digital Content Directive.

Kötz (2017), p. 1; Weatherill (2016), p. 3.

COM(2003) 68 final.

Schulze and Zoll (2021), Chap. 1 para. 50.

Ibid, Chap. 1 para. 52.

COM(2011) 635 final.

COM(2015) 634 final.

COM(2015) 635 final.

Kötz (2017), p. 11.

Weatherill (2016), p. 54.

Kötz (2017), p. 11.

Weatherill (2016), p. 4.

COM(2022) 68 final.

Article 13 of the draft Data Act.

Article 23 of the draft Data Act.

Armbrüster C (2021) § 134 BGB. In: Säcker F, Rixecker R, Oetker H, Limperg B (eds) Münchener Kommentar zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch, 9th edn. C.H. Beck, München

Borghetti J-S (2021) Non-performance and the change of circumstances under French law. In: Hondius E, Santos Silva M, Nicolussi A, Salvador Coderch P, Wendehorst C, Zoll F (eds) Coronavirus and the law in Europe. Intersentia, Cambridge, pp 509–526. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781839701801

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Titel: Contract Law in Germany
verfasst von: Hannes Henke
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Are Legal Systems Converging or Diverging?
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38179-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-38180-5

Copyright-Jahr: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38180-5_9

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