In a broad sense the principles offer a "set of general rules ... designed to provide maximum flexibility and thus accommodate future development in legal thinking in the field of contract law".
Instead, the Commission on European Contract Law (an organisation independent of any national obligations) started work in 1982 under the chairmanship of the late Ole Lando, a lawyer and professor from Denmark who died in April 2019.
[6] The Commission's Action Plan set out within this communication proposed adopting "a mixture of regulatory and non-regulatory measures" to address the problems resulting from national diversity within the contract law field.
[5] The Commission and the legal experts in this field have pointed out the extensive research which needs to be undertaken (and financed) to take this agenda forward.
As is the case with the PECL, the Unidroit Principles are a "private codification" prepared by top-class jurists without any national or supranational order or authorisation.
Each party can be assured not to have disadvantages due to unfavorable aspects of particular national law after the parties have agreed to the application of the Principles: "... the only way to a really unified market was and is that of having a common set of rules in order to overcome the traditional barriers of each national legal order having a distinct and disparate regulation on the subject.
"[11] Written in a language known to all parties and using a uniform terminology, the PECL also serve as a "basis for any future European Code of Contracts",[12] consistent with the above-mentioned EU resolutions, which may eventually replace separate national laws.
Often, parties to international sales contracts do not agree on a national law governing their contractual agreement.
The PECL were created, as was the case with the CISG and the Unidroit Principles, with the intention to be an example for existing and future national legal systems.
There is an ongoing legal dispute as to whether an independent European civil code beyond the existing substantial EU regulatory framework is needed.
The Study Group on a European Civil Code (SGECC), based on the PECL and, respectively, the Lando-Commission, presented in 2009 a draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) in co-operation with other institutions.
This optional regulation would be offered as an alternative to the existing individual-state contract law systems of the member states in all official languages.
However, the concept of the prepared Draft Common Frame of Reference has met with strong criticism in the European member states.