YEARS OF EUROPEAN ONLINE ANNÉES DE EN LIGNE ...

ies terminological variants. the project takes into account ive different legal
orders: the french, the Spanish, the Italian, the German and the British. the
ive boxes related to them are linked in the sense that the user can jump from
one legal system to another, and from one directive or one link to another, surfing
through the software. Step 2 provides the vertical perspective, comparing
the term used in EU law to that used in the national law of member States. the
user can, for instance, go from the European directive which has been written
in Italian into the Italian national piece of implementing legislation. the same
is valid for the french, Spanish, German and British legal systems.
In other words, the user can map the occurrence of the words within EU
law (horizontal perspective) and between EU law and the national level (vertical
perspective).
"
Step 1: The horizontal
perspective
Several EU directives
refer to the genral
principle of good faith
“Good faith”
Unfair contract terms directive (93/13/EEC)
Distance selling directive (97/7/EC)
Directive on distant marketing of inancial services
(2002/65/EC)
Unfair commercial practices directive (2005/29/EC)
Let us take the horizontal perspective irst. If, for instance, you compare
Directive 97/7/EC on distance sales ( 4 ) with Directive 2002/65/EC on the distance
marketing of consumer inancial services, you ind that the term ‘good
faith’ in the English texts is always expressed in the same way, using the same
words. the same occurs for the Spanish term buena fe. however, if you look
for the french version of the same directives you realise that what was expressed
as ‘good faith’ in English is translated into two different terms (loyauté
and bonne foi). the same happens as regards the Italian (lealtà and buona fede)
and the German (Lauterkeit and Treu und Glauben) versions.
( 4 ) Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 may 1997 on
the protection of consumers in respect of distance, OJ L 144, 4.6.1997, pp. 19–27.
01_2007_5222_txt_ML.indd 132 6-12-2007 15:14:01