Europe Needs a True Business Law. What Does That Mean?

This contribution is concerned with the status of business law in Europe, especially in the European Union. The first observation that may be made is that the civil law, which is dominant in Member States, was never made for business. Codification is at its heart and was always nineteenth century anthropomorphic, geared to natural persons in what we now call consumer law. This also remained true for newer codifications like the ones in The Netherlands in 1992 and it is not different in recent Belgian proposals which still look for a unitary approach, basically the same for consumers and business or professional dealings unless some specific exceptions and clarifications are made for the latter and they are few.