A Lords committee has set out its opposition to the harmonisation of contract law at a European level.
The House of Lords EU committee published a report in which it also expressed doubt over the value of making an entirely new European law of contract available to contracting parties on an optional basis.
Harmonising European contract law is "off the agenda" for the moment, the committee said.
And peers said that an entirely new European law of contract would require legal status throughout Europe.
But the report expressed doubt over investing further resources in the "untested" legal framework.
There is no convincing evidence or demand for such a system, the report stated.
Peers also recommended that the government and the European Commission give "further consideration" to an EU law reform body, which would be tasked with ensuring coherence in European law.
Lord Mance, chairman of the sub-committee on law and institutions, explained: "We are pleased that wholesale harmonisation of European contract law appears to be off the table.
"We think that the idea of an optional EU law code of contract (or of EU wide standard terms of contract) ought equally to be discounted."
Read the full report here.
