This book brings together the papers presented at the 2007 conference on European private law organised by the University of Lleida on the occasion of the conferral of a doctorate honoris causa upon Reinhard Zimmermann. Professor Zimmerman’s acceptance speech is followed by contributions intended to attest to Reinhard Zimmermann as motivator of the scientific quest that has inspired the development of the new ius commune europaeum. The other papers deal with various substantive aspects of the Draft of the Common Frame of Reference prepared by the Study Group and the Acquis Group on behalf of the European Commission.