Codification at the European Level

Abstract

The article deals with the question to what extent the objectives of the codification idea (legislative planfulness, concept-led consistent systematisation, substantive completeness, complexity-reducing abstraction, law transcending purpose) are compatible with the constitutional integration concept (both substantive and organisational) of the European Union. It assesses the impact of these elements and the Union´s constitutional concept of integration on the failure of the projects of the Constitutional Treaty for Europe (CTE) and of the Common European Sales Law (CESL) in a comparative manner. Eventually it draws as lesson to be learnt for future codification projects at the European level to pursue a careful approach to sovereignty-related or identity-related issues inherent in an international federal polity, shows the chances for codifications below this threshold and outlines the consequences for the future successful handling of the main codification purposes in the more sensitive projects.