Prescription in the proposal for a common European sales law. Is harmonization (of European legal traditions) achieved?

Abstract

The Draft Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) deals with prescription in Articles 178 to 186. This paper discusses the level of legal harmonization supposedly achieved within the European Union concerning extinctive prescription. A number of significant inaccuracies that might substantially affect the effectiveness and application of the Optional Instrument are noted, demanding an amendment before becoming EU law.

This article is part of the publications of the Spanish National Research Project MICINN DER2012-37898-C02-01 called “The Optional Instrument of European Contract Law”, and the activities of the consolidated research group “Catalan Civil Law and European Private Law” funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014SGR223). The author is also a member of the Research Center CEJEM (Centro de Estudios Jurídicos Europeos y de Mediación), at the University of Lleida. She is grateful for the financial aid received to carry out this project. She is also grateful for the assistance provided by Ricard Serrano Barqué.