What can be done to reverse this isolation and fragmentation, deplorable not only per se but particularly in view of the creation of a European Union on the political, economic, and increasingly on the cultural level? A number of answers present themselves. I will focus on just one of them because it allows me to present two research projects with which I am busy at the moment. Since the 1980s we have witnessed, on various levels, a gradual Europeanization of contract law.43 One prominent strand in this has been the drafting of reference texts, or sets of model rules. Principles of European Contract Law, Principes Contractuels Communs, Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Acquis Principles, Draft Common Frame of Reference, Draft Proposal for a Common European Sales Law: these are just some of the major reference texts.44 Take into account international conventions such as theCISG, the avant-projet Gandolfi, and the various versions in which some of the reference texts have appeared, and we face over fifteen distinct layers of text.All these texts are genetically and hermeneutically related to one another in unexpectedly complex ways.45 It is thus necessary to understand how the textual layers evolved in order to assess and evaluate the correspondences and differences in formulation and any shifts in approach and policy. This exercise in contemporary legal history is rendered difficult because there is little by way of travaux préparatoires to provide guidance. Some of the reference texts are accompanied by comments, but these comments are largely exegetical, explaining what a specific rule or concept was supposed to mean, not why it was adopted. In a project begun several years ago, Nils Jansen and I, together with some twenty colleagues, subjected the various reference texts in Euro43 For details, see Reinhard Zimmermann, ‘Comparative Law and the Europeanization of Private Law’, inReimann & Zimmermann 2008, 539–78; id., ‘The Present State of European Private Law’, American Journal of Comparative Law57(2009), 479–512. 44 Readily accessible in Oliver Radley-Gardner, Hugh Beale, Reinhard Zimmermann & Reiner Schulze(eds.), Fundamental Texts on European Private Law(2nd edn, Oxford: Hart, 2016). 45 Reinhard Zimmermann, ‘Textstufen in der Entwicklung des europäischen Privatrechts’, Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht [2009], 319–23. understanding the law in a historical and comparative perspective 243 European contract law
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