This study – commissioned by the Policy Department C at the request of the Committee on Legal Affairs – aims at discussing the reasons why the law chosen in commercial contracts is largely non-European and non-member state law. To do so, it first provides an overview of the relevant academic and policy efforts underwent to formulate a European contract law. Then it moves on to touch upon a broad spectrum of matters emerging both from international reports on the adjudication and the functioning of the courts systems, as well as from academic literature on matters that span from contract qualification, interpretation, integration, and some fundamental aspects of remedies.