「現存EC私法유럽연구단」의 Acquis 원칙

Abstract

The piecemeal legislation of the European Community cannot cope with divergencies resulting from the context of national law and in particular with differences in structure, principles and concepts. The harmonization of the general framework which accommodates specific instruments in Europe is carrying out by legal scholarship. The important aspect of the process is the contributions of legal scholarship which has turned to the analysis of general principles of private law in various fields. There are many groups of scholars devoted to the elaboration dealing with the areas of the private law. In this paper was focused on one of these groups, European Research Group on Existing EC Private Law(the Acquis Group). As a reaction on activities of EU institutions in the field of European contract law, the Acquis Group targets a systematic arrangement of existing Community law which will help to elucidate the common structures of the emerging Community private law. With its Action Plan on "A More Coherent European Contract Law"(Com[2003] 68), the European Commission intends to stimulate both discussion and research on European contract law in order to prepare a "Common Frame of Reference(CFR)". The Acquis Group intends to contribute to the task of providing material for the Commission to build the CFR. Its task is to derive common "Principles of the Existing EC Private Law" following a new approach by focusing upon the genuine EC Law itself instead of comparing different national legal orders. Its research, "Principles of the Existing EC Contract Law", can serve as building material for the CFR. The “Principles of the Existing EC Contract Law” can provide elements for the CFR both with regard to the set of definitions and with regard to a set of principles. However, the work of the Acquis Group is not intended to formulate the elements of the CFR itself, but to provide the Commission with the genuine European content. These elements will have to be combined with common rules or principles derived from national legal orders and national case-law. It is intended that the “Principles of the Existing EC Contract Law” will be compared to the "Principles of European Contract Law" (PECL) formulated by the Lando-Group, in order to identify deviations. This will also help in including common rules of national legal orders and national case-law into the rules derived from genuine European law. Although the approach of the Acquis Group is necessary in order to include the existing acquis communautaire into the CFR, the group mainly covers one of the three sources identified in the Commission’s Action Plan. Therefore, cooperation with other initiatives which take into account national case-law and national legal orders is intended. The Acquis Group can provide other initiatives with its findings on the existing EC contract law and thus enhance and broaden the individual approach.