Article by Mathias Reimann
Codification is a venerable tradition in continental Europe. Its latest challenge is the idea of a common civil code for all European Union countries. In such an endeavor, European jurists should seek the assistance of their North American colleagues. Such a suggestion sounds strange at first, but there are two reasons why European codifiers would benefit from North American help. First, a European civil code requires the unification of (private) law in a system consisting of essentially autonomous units; this is exactly what lawyers in the United States have done for decades in drafting uniform laws and restatements. Second, considered as a whole, the European Union is a mixed, civil-common law system, so that a European Code must give due consideration to the common law. In North America, especially in Louisiana and Quebec, jurists have learned how to codify private law in mixed jurisdictions. Thus they can provide invaluable help in bringing the gap between the civil and the common law.
About the Author
Mathias Reimann. Professor of Law, University of Michigan and Universität Trier; Dr. iur., University of Freiburg; LL.M. University of Michigan.
Citation
73 Tul. L. Rev. 1337 (1999)