At the invitation of the President of the Delegation of the Bars of France, Maître Jean-Jacques Forrer, a lawyer registered with the Brussels and Strasbourg Bars, former Bâtonnier, Jochen Bauerreis took part in “European Interviews” in Brussels on 17 October 2014.
As part of these European Interviews, Jochen Bauerreis gave a lecture on the following topic:
Draft Common European Sales law (CESL)
In the first part of his lecture, Jochen Bauerreis presented to the audience the various improvements which, in his view, have taken place since the legislative process for a Common European Sales Law (CESL) began:
- Choice of the CESL vs. Choice of applicable law (Rome I)
- Domain of the CESL with regard to SMEs
- Wide definition of cross border contracts
- Means of applying CESL to domestic contracts
- Optional nature of the CESL
- Sufficient protection of consumers
Despite this progress, Jochen Bauerreis also formulated a number of criticisms and problems which still need to be resolved, in particular:
- Scope of application
- Definition of a professional vs. a consumer
- Application of the CESL and the CISG – presumption of opting out
- Loss of the right of rescission for the buyer
- Specifics of B2B vs B2C
- Lack of transparency in the application of provisions