Principles versus Rules in the Emerging European Contract Law

The authors propose to take principles "seriously", by understanding them in the framework of the well-known Dworkinian theory of law. As showed by their constitutional link to human rights and fundamental freedoms, "principles" would therefore be opposed to "rules". At the European level particularly, principles would encapsulate the common core of the laws of the Member States and (especially with regard to subsidiarity and proportionality) would set the conditions for it to be applied by the Court of Justice. "Principles" would promote the goal of European legal unity by reinforcing what national laws already have in common, while "rules" enacted by the Union would do so by elimination of national diverges.