Definition of contract law

Under Dutch law, what is the definition of contract law?

Contract law is the essence of contracting and is regulated in Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code (DCC). The legal field of contract law can more or less be defined as an umbrella organisation of statutory rules, case law and other sources of law which govern the formation phase up to the end of a contract.

In terms of commercial contracts, Dutch contract lawyers mainly assess the pre-contractual phase, the content of a contract and the end of a contract. In both the pre-contractual and post-contractual phases, parties may be subject to obligations. Consider, for example, such an establishment of trust in arriving at a commercial agreement that requires entry into the contract. In addition, the post-contractual phase will often remain subject to a prohibition on approaching the competition, or to confidentiality.

In short, contract law is dynamic. At the same time, contract law is also, for a important part, regulatory law: parties are granted a large degree of contractual freedom when entering into an agreement. Some matters in contract law may also have a mandatory character, for example in terms of legal relationships involving consumers, employees, commercial agents and tenants.