The Netherlands

On the surface the law of contracts of the netherlands appears to be in calm waters. No major changes have occurred recently in the burgerlijk wetboek (bw), the civil code. The authors believe, however, there has been some remarkable case law on a number of topics dealing with broad principles of contract law such as freedom of contract and the binding force of contracts. Furthermore, one can see a certain level of deformalisation, especially in the rules on notice of default. A contrary tendency, viz. A tendency towards formalisation, can be seen with regard to other topics, as in the case-law regarding the duty to hand over general conditions to the other party and the introduction of the formality of a written contract with regard to the sale of real property. Last but not least, there are a number of cases that could be the start of a tendency towards a more paternalistic approach in favour of the non-professional party. In the view of the authors this could prove to be a dangerous development