Festskrift til Mads Bryde Andersen (1. udg.)

Med dette festskrift hylder en række kolleger inden for den akademiske og praktiske juridiske verden professor, dr.jur. Mads Bryde Andersen i anledning af hans 60 års fødselsdag den 25. september 2018. Hyldesten tilfalder en person ud over det sædvanlige. Allerede doktordisputatsen »Edb & ansvar« fra 1989, skrevet på lidt over to år, dokumenterede de kvalifikationer, der kendetegner Mads: fremragende analytiske evner, en enorm arbejdskapacitet, stor intellektuel nysgerrighed og en evne til ny og original juridisk tænkning. Disse evner har gjort Mads til en af sin generations mest markante jurister og har resulteret i et omfattende forfatterskab og praktisk virke.

valid international sales contract was made. ⁹⁴⁶946. See Joseph Lookofsky, ‘Alive and Well in Scandinavia: CISG Part II,’ 18 Journal of Law and Commerce (1999) 289, 290, also at https://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/biblio/lookofsky1.html. Presumably, this objection was related to the fact the Danish Contracts Act – unlike CISG Part II – deals both with contract formation (the ‘mechanics’ of agreement) and with contract validity (‘defenses’ to enforcement).

Because the international community was not ready in 1980 to harmonize the rules that render contracts unenforceable, (e.g.) by reason of unconscionability or unreasonableness, ⁹⁴⁷947. Regarding unconscionability and unreasonableness see the discussion in the next section (III). sales contract validity would have to remain dependent upon (the applicable) domestic law, but that hardly gave Denmark reason to reject the contract formation rules in CISG Part II.

The failure to acknowledge and support the homogenized common core of Article 16 – i.e. the default starting point in paragraph (1), as well as the significant exceptions to revocability in paragraph (2) – was an unfortunate mistake which put Scandinavia outside the Part II loop which united all other CISG Contracting States. Regrettably, it took twenty-five long years before Denmark – and the other Scandinavian States – finally saw the light and took steps to put things right. ⁹⁴⁸948. See Joseph Lookofsky,’ The Rise and Fall of CISG Article 92,’ in Festschrift für Ulrich Magnus (Mankowski & Wurmnest eds. 2014), 243-254.

3. Unconscionability

I started studying Danish law in the fall of 1975. Earlier that same year, § 36 of the Danish Contracts Act (1917) became a ‘General Clause,’ which translates as follows: ⁹⁴⁹949. As reflected in this translation here, the original (1975) phrase ‘can be set aside’ (kan tilsidesættes) was replaced in 1995 with the broader phrase ‘can be amended or set aside’ (kan ændres eller tilsidesættes).

1 A contract may be modified or set aside, in whole or in part, if it would be unreasonable or at variance with the principles of good faith to enforce it ...