Any newcomer on the already well-served market for contract law books must explain itsel£ Over the last two hundred years or so, contract law has been mainly national in contents and outlook. This is reflected in the abundance of textbooks on the contract law of national jurisdictions. These textbooks introduce students to the national contract law of their own country in their own language. Next to these traditional books, there is an increasing number of texts available that offer a comparative, European or even global perspective on the law of contract - invariably designed to cater for the needs of students who are already familiar with the fundamentals of contract law. This book seeks to combine the two: it introduces students to the field of contract law by way of a comparative approach. It assumes that contract law is an international discipline that can be taught on the basis of common principles and methods, just like economics, psychology or any other field of academic study. There are two reasons why this approach is adopted.