Julia Rauchberger

Battle of Forms: Under American and English Law and According to the Principles of European Contract Law Julia Rauchberger

?Battle of forms? situations are inevitable. Modern business with mass production and mass distribution could not work properly without the use of preprinted standard forms: they help accelerating the bargaining process. Order forms, quotations, delivery notes etc. are being used and in the end one might have problems determining the contract?s actual terms. As the preprinted terms are usually favorable only to the party using them, the forms? terms mostly differ from one another. Whose terms prevail: those of the offer, those of the counter-offer or those of the acceptance? ?Battle of forms? is a rather complex but very interesting topic that cannot be ignored in everyday?s business life. This book aims to provide an easy to understand introduction to the topic through explaining the different solutions. It examines the English common law and how the American legislator departed from it by formulating one of the most controversial provisions of the Code: UCC §2-207. Finally, the book provides a short overview of PECL Article 2:209 to show what the expert scholars who drafted the Principles of European Contract Law considered as the best solution to the issue.