Better Regulation and the Revision of EU Contract Law

Impact assessments should help the EU legislator to determine in which way EU consumer law can best be revised, by exploring the various possibilities, including retaining minimum harmonisation, adopting a horizontal instrument, or adopting full harmonisation. Impact assessments should assess and compare the impact of these policy options, as well as their suitability to foster the internal market. Despite the development of the 2009 Impact Assessment Guidelines, the EU legislator has influenced impact assessments. This has been acknowledged in the 2015 Better Regulation Guidelines that stress the importance of policy analysis, and also provides advice on what not to do. Further, the European Commission has also introduced more independent and more consistent revision of impact assessments. However, the newly adopted Guidelines have already been criticised for favouring deregulation and quantification and, logically, they have not been developed for EU contract law. Do the 2015 Guidelines provide sufficient guidance for policy analysis in EU contract law, particularly the apparently forthcoming revision of Directive 1999/44 on consumer sales?

The meeting will be held in the Old Rectory Teaching Room (for a map, see here).

Sandwiches and refreshments will be available from 12.30. The discussion will begin at 1pm.