44 Books II and III

The difficult decisions concerned Books II and III. There was never much doubt that these Books should cover the material in the existing Principles of European Contract Law (PECL, see paragraph 8 above and paragraphs 49–53 below) — general rules on contracts and other juridical acts, and general rules on contractual and (in most cases) other obligations — but there was considerable difficulty in deciding how this material should be divided up between and within them, and what they should be called. It was only after decisions were taken by the Co-ordinating Group on how the key terms ‘contract’ and ‘obligation’ would be used in the model rules, and after a special Structure Group was set up, that the way forward became clear. Book II would deal with contracts and other juridical acts (how they are formed, how they are interpreted, when they are invalid, how their content is determined and so on) while Book III would deal with obligations within the scope of the DCFR — both contractual and non-contractual — and corresponding rights.