Among the most significant legal developments of our time is the emergence of a European private law. The European Union enacts directives which profoundly affect the practice,teaching and study of core areas of 'classical' private law. Internationally commissions have formulated principles of European trusts, contract and commercial law. Furthermore, uniform private law can be found in a number of international conventions. This book gathers together fundamental texts from these three sources into one convenient volume. Its emphasis is on general civil and commercial law, particularly on the obligations and property aspects of these. Fully updated, it contains the recent directives in the areas of E-Commerce, Electronic Signatures and Late Payments. It also makes available for the first time English language versions of a number of texts by international commissions. This book is a sister volume to the original German and the subsequent Spanish version. With full references to the implementation of the directives in Denmark, EIRE, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, this book will be a useful resource for practitioners, students and teachers working in the field of European private law.