The present volume presents a part of the results of a research project
launched by the European Science Foundation (ESF) in 1977. Tribute
should be paid to the late Professor Aleck Chloros, Judge in the Court
of the European Community, whose belief in the European ideal and
enthusiasm for European cooperation and the comparative study of legal
problems made him an elo- quent advocate of a large-scale ESF venture
into the field of com- parative law. Judge Chloros had envisaged the
creation of a per- manent, sizable and well-equipped European institute
for compa- rative legal studies. The successive working parties convoked
by the Executive Council of the ESF, which I had the honour of chairing
from the beginning, came to the conclusion that this am- bitious vision
could not be realized immediately; the financial sit- uation of the
member organizations of the ESF also deteriorated, making a cautious
approach a necessary virtue. The solution ulti- mately adopted by the
last of the working parties - the Ad Hoc Committee for Comparative Law
-and submitted to the General Assembly of the ESF in 1979 called for the
launching of four pi- lot projects. In November 1980, the Assembly
approved detailed plans for two of these projects. The first of these -
dealing with medical responsibility - has already been presented in an
impres- sive volume (E. Deutsch and H. -L. Schreiber, editors, Medical
Responsibility in Western Europe.