Creation of the Study Group

Founding the academic network

It was with the inspiration to further scholarly endeavour in researching the practical viability of a possible codification of European private law, which the first resolutions of the European Parliament in this field provided, that the Study Group on a European Civil Code has been constituted. The extent to which the realisation of that legislative goal may or may not be desirable and the question whether the European Union has or should have a legal competence to undertake it are matters of fierce political controversy. At the same time they are obviously of great significance to the European legal community. The Study Group on a European Civil Code - a network of generalist and specialist experts in the field of private law - intends to make a paramount academic contribution to these contemporary debates.

The independence of the Group

Only by ascertaining the extent of common principles of private law in Europe on the basis of detailed and extensive comparative research and by determining the feasibility of drafting a European Civil Code suitable for enactment can meaningful focus be given to many of these disputed issues. While contributors to the work of the Study Group will have personal views on the rights, wrongs and practicalities of such a legislative enterprise, the Study Group does not engage directly with the political debate. The enactment of a Civil Code containing a harmonised private law for the Member States of the European Communities is, ultimately, a political ambition lying outside the purview of this academic Study Group. As a voluntary gathering of legal expertise for a joint academic venture, the Study Group has no political mandate. Rather the Study Group - as its name implies - is constituted as a non-political body whose endeavour consists solely of scholarly research into current private law in the various EU jurisdictions. The task being undertaken is an academic one: to lay the intellectual groundwork for evaluating the merits of a possible legislative text. Within the confines of legal scholarship, the Study Group derives its legitimation from its inclusive membership of academic ability from across the European Union.