Principles versus rules in the emerging European contract law

The article proposes to take principles "seriously", by understanding them from the point of view of the well-known Dworkinian theory of law. As showed by their constitutional link to human rights and fundamental freedoms, "principles" would therefore have an anti-positivistic nature and thus would 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 divergences.