engleski

Retention of title in the European Union: Is there possibility for harmonization

Although there are 28 national jurisdictions in the European Union, due to the extensive process of harmonization their national rules in public domain have much in common. Private law area, on the other hand, remains mainly unaffected by this process, especially in the area of property law. retention of title clause is one of the most important tools for protection of the seller's rights under the sales contract, but it arises from the nucleus of property law. It means, among other things, that it remains heavily influenced by local legal tradition. As such it can be one of the obstacles for the free movement of goods and services. Having this in mind it is of no surprise that for the last three decades the EU has been trying to come up with the European notion of the retention of title clause. Different advantages as well as disadvantages of the cross-border relations in the area of contract law with the implications on the property law would best be met by the autonomous notion of this clause. Despite the obvious willingness of the EU in regulationg the subject matter, question remains whether the EU competences include this area. What about article 295 of the EC Treaty which seems to prevent the EU from legislative actions in the area of property law? What about numerus clausus? Also, it may be argued that this issue has already been dealt with on the level of UNIDROIT as well as UNCITRAL, with not much success. Thus, the intention of authors is to explore reasons for the failure of the attempted unification at global level and to explain how common European retention of title clause could lead to more secure and more certain transactions within the internal market.

retention of title, European Union, harmonization, property law

nije evidentirano