I wonder if Australian colleagues have any comment on information
about this which has only recently reached me. It appears that last
June Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced that the
Federal Government planned to introduce a contract code by mid-2012.
A draft would be circulated towards the end of this year. It would be
up to the various States to decide whether to adopt the code, the aim
of which would to remove or resolve discrepancies in contract law
without having to wait for the High Court to do so. Choice of law
between the States was not necessarily the answer for foreign
investors in Australia, notably from China. Making the code optional
for the States would avoid questions about the Federal Government's
power to impose solutions on States. The reaction of the Australian
legal profession was at best lukewarm if not hostile.

There are some fairly obvious parallels between this and the European
Union Optional Instrument project. For those who don't already know,
on either 12 or 19 October the European Commission will publish its
proposal for the optional instrument, possibly to be known as the
European Sales Law, since it will apply only to sale of goods
contracts, and not to contract law in general.

--
Hector L MacQueen
Professor of Private Law
Edinburgh Law School
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh EH8 9YL
UK

SSRN http://ssrn.com/author=463210

Currently working at the Scottish Law Commission tel: (UK-0)131-662-5222




--
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Scotland, with registration number SC005336.