Summary

The events related to the modernisation and harmonisation of the global and European contract law taking place over the past decade as well as the fact that the Civil Law of Latvia is largely a reflection of the legal thinking of the 19th and even earlier centuries, serve as a logical basis for a wider discussion about the modernisation of the Civil Law and its potential directions. As one of the most important acts of Latvian contract law whose provisions are aimed at modernisation of contract law and its harmonisation with the main model acts of European contract law, such as the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) and the Draft Common Frame of Reference, the amendments of 4 June 2009 to the Civil Law must be emphasised, which entered into force on 1 July 2009 and introduced a number of amendments to the legal regulations, inter alia, related to entry into contract with absent parties, reduction of an excess contractual penalty and legal aspects of the predictability of damage. The article examines these new additions to the contract law of Latvia.