by Helga Fonseca, Collaborating Member of CEDU
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- INTRODUCTION
The Treatment contract is one of the legal instruments provided in the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR)[i] which allows the parts into a medical services contract under the Art. I.V.C.-8:101 to 8:111.
This particular instrument developed in the 1980s in the legislation of the European Community – now the European Union – has the purpose to protect the parts, inter alia, the consumers in private contractual situations, above all, when one party is in a weaker position (the patient) in comparison to the medical provider (the Services Directive does not applies to the medical services)[ii].
As it says in the DCFR, the “DCFR is developed on the basis of comparative studies of community law and the laws of the Member States, it has to reflect the underlying values to be found in the existing laws, that are not the same in each system”. As far as there are differences between the underlying values in individual jurisdictions, or between the laws of the Member States and EC law, the DCFR mediates between them and takes a balanced position. Any attempt to work in principles of private law, will at least have to deal with the following core aims and the values expressed in them: Justice; Freedom; Protection of Human Rights; Economic welfare; Solidarity and Social Responsibility; Promotion of the Internal Market; Preservations of Cultural and Linguistic Plurality and so on[iii].
The DCFR is to be interpreted and applied in consistent with the aims and principles of which not only the laws of the Member States, but also the principles to which the European Union is based on. Such as the Internal Market with free and fair competitions and free movements of goods, people, services and capital, and the protection of consumers and others in need of protection.
Continue reading “An overview of the treatment contract in the DCFR”
