comfort letter a letter in business matters written to assure another party of the writer's intentions. It is essentially not supposed to be binding in law but can allow negotiations or commerce to continue. Examples are in relation to contract negotiations and in relation to the absence of permissions from local authorities.

A special instance is a communication from the COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION to the effect that an agreement submitted for an

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exemption under Article 81 (formerly Article 85) of the COMPETITION LAW does not infringe Article 81 or that if it does infringe Article 81 it still qualifies for an exemption. Following such a communication, the Commission will normally close its dossier. However, the letters are only administrative letters, so are not binding on national courts. Neither are they open to challenge in annulment proceedings before the COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.

• contract
• contra proferentem rule
• contravention
• contributory negligence
• contumelia
• conventions
• conversion
• conveyancing
• convicium
• conviction
• cooling-off period
• cooperation procedure
• copyright
• Coreper
• co-respondent
• coroner
• corporal punishment
• corporation (aggregate)
• corporation sole
• corporation tax
• corporeal
• corpus delicti
• Corpus Juris Civilis
• corroboration
• costs