Background
The stimulus to actionIn 1989 (OJ C 158 (28.6.1989), resolution of 26th May 1989) and again in 1994 (OJ C 205 (25.7.1994), resolution of 6th May 1994) the European Parliament summoned the legal academic community to bring its expertise to bear in the creation of a European Code of Private Law.
Against the background of these two Parliamentary resolutions, the Dutch Ministry of Justice organised a conference in the Hague in 1997 under the banner "Towards a Civil Code". Here it emerged as apparent to many participants that jurists themselves should venture the construction of a pan-European codification of private law because only those trained in the discipline can pursue the essential task of intensive comparative research free from the constraints of representing national interests and accommodating political expediency.
The Speech by the Minister of Justice at the opening of the symposium: Towards a European Civil Code, 28 February 1997, 9.45 h. at Carlton Beach Hotel, Scheveningen, Den Haag:
http://www.minjust.nl:8080/C_ACTUAL/SPEECHES/SP0006.htm
Subsequently published research into the possibility and necessity of creating a European Civil Code was funded by the Parliament's Directorate-General for Research in 1999. Following that report, a hearing took place before the Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market in November 2000.
The Private Law Systems in the EU: Discrimination on Grounds of Nationality and the Need for a European Civil Code:
http://www.europarl.eu.int/workingpapers/juri/default_en.htm
