ABSTRACT
Despite the elegant and powerful analysis of a writer like Pierre Legrand, it would probably be unrealistic to insist that the harmonisation of private law in Europe will ultimately prove an impossible task, if only because one legal tradition will, in the end, come to dominate the other. It is evident from the preceding chapters that the English law of contract, tort and restitution can, at one level, be forced into a code-like framework even if whole sections remain squeezed out beyond the perimeters. And Millett LJ’s re-interpretation of tracing (Chapter 4 § 5(d)–(e); Chapter 11 § 4), aided and abetted by a range of academics, shows how the process is underway. Indeed, the completion of the Principles of European Contract Law suggests that the process is already producing concrete results.
