ABSTRACT

Jill Poole underscored the critical importance of understanding the impact of globalisation and Europeanisation on contract law. These phenomena manifest themselves in the elaboration of harmonised principles, are bolstered by the growth in e-commerce and lent urgency by the rise of the digital economy; an economy in which increasingly dynamic consumer/trader relationships; and algorithm pricing destabilise our traditional conceptualisation of the contract. This piece, dedicated to Jill's contribution to reconceptualising the modern law of contract, focuses on the Europeanisation of contract law. The work surveys policy elaboration – from the 2004 Communication on European Contract law to the 2015 Draft Directive on Digital Content – evaluating the innovation contained in the various initiatives in the special UK context of "Brexit". The future of the Digital Single Market (DSM) proposals has special implications for the UK post-Brexit. The DSM strategy thus became the new host of private law harmonisation.