7 Legal science, research and education

However, the DCFR ought not to be regarded merely as a building block of a ‘political’ Common Frame of Reference. The DCFR will stand on its own and retain its significance whatever happens in relation to a CFR. The DCFR is an academic text. It sets out the results of a large European research project and invites evaluation from that perspective. The breadth of that scholarly endeavour will be apparent when the full edition is published. Independently of the fate of the CFR, it is hoped that the DCFR will promote knowledge of private law in the jurisdictions of the European Union. In particular it will help to show how much national private laws resemble one another and have provided mutual stimulus for development — and indeed how much those laws may be regarded as regional manifestations of an overall common European legacy. The function of the DCFR is thus separate from that of the CFR in that the former serves to sharpen awareness of the existence of a European private law and also (via the comparative notes that will appear in the full edition) to demonstrate the relatively small number of cases in which the different legal systems produce substantially different answers to common problems. The DCFR may furnish the notion of a European private law with a new foundation which increases mutual understanding and promotes collective deliberation on private law in Europe.