European private law has hitherto tended to be conceptualised firmly around ideas of unity and harmony. Yet the discourse within other areas of European law, notably constitutional law scholarship, visibly adopts pluralist perspectives. This book seeks to bridge the gap between 'public' and 'private' law by looking at European private law from various pluralist positions and by investigating old and new ways in which to understand legal pluralism in general. It fills a gap in the wide literature on legal pluralism, as the first book entirely dedicated to offering an insight into legal pluralism from the vantage point of the private law domain. The book addresses critically issues such as what pluralism really means in private law and what conceptions of pluralism it embodies, including discussion about the outer boundaries of any of the pluralist understandings. Contributions address comparative, critical, historical, theoretical and normative aspects. The book provides an opportunity to engage innovatively with problematic conceptual issues which inform the work of European private law scholars, including the debate on the Common Frame of Reference Poject of the European Commision.

The relevance of contracting and self-regulation in consumer markets has increased rapidly in recent years, in particular in the platform economy. Online platforms provide opportunities for businesses and consumers to connect with strangers, often across borders, trading products, and services. In this new economy, platform operators create, apply and enforce their own rules in their contractual relationships with users. This book examines the substance of these rules and the space for private governance beyond the reach of state regulation. Vanessa Mak explores recent developments in lawmaking 'beyond the state' with case studies focusing on companies such as Airbnb and Amazon. The book asks how common values and objectives of EU law, such as consumer protection and contractual fairness, can be safeguarded when lawmaking shifts to a space outside the reach of state law.

The European codification project has rapidly gathered pace since the turn of the century. This monograph considers the codification project in light of a series of broader analytical frameworks – comparative, historical and constitutional – which make modern codification phenomena intelligible. This new reading across fields renders the European codification project (currently being promoted through the Common Frame of Reference and the Optional Sales Law Code proposal) vulnerable to constitutionally-grounded criticism, traceable to normative considerations of private law authority and legitimacy. Arguing that modern codification phenomena are more complex than positivist, socio-legal and historical approaches have suggested over the past two centuries, the book stages a pathbreaking method of analysis of the law-discourse (nomos-centred) which questions at once the reduction of private law to legislation and of law to power and, on this basis, redefines the ways in which to counter law's disintegration and crisis in the context of Europeanisation. Professor Niglia reconstructs the European codification project as a complex structure of government-in-the-making that embodies a set of contingent world views, excludes alternatives, challenges the plurality of private laws and entrenches conflicts that pertain not only to form (codification, de-codification, recodification) but also to dilemmas implicated in determining the substantive orientation of European private law. The book investigates the position of the codifiers and their discontents in the shadow of the codification strategy pursued by the European Commission – noting a new turn in the struggle over the configuration of private law which has taken place since the Savigny-Thibaut dispute of 1814 which this book critically revisits exactly two centuries later. This monograph is particularly aimed at readers interested in exploring the complexities, and interconnections, of the supposedly separate realms of comparative law, European law, private law, legal history, constitutional law, sociology of law and, last but not least, legal theory and jurisprudence.

This book proposes a new analysis of the transformation of Europe through integration, exactly 30 years after the beginning of transformation scholarship. It consists of a reconstruction of the development and present condition of European integration in relation to private ordering. Looking at the interface between, on the one hand, the EU constitutional order and, on the other hand, private ordering, the book recounts three major structural transformations over the last six decades. Delving into the private law areas most exposed to the current modernisation wave – consumer law, internal market, lex mercatoria, digitisation, artificial intelligence, data protection, standardised contracts, finance and political economy, and labour – the book critically explores a reconfiguration of Europe's constitutional structures relative to, and that results from, what to some appears to be an almost irresistible rise of private ordering through a transformed hermeneutics (balancing). This is a magisterial survey of European law, European private law, and comparative law seen through a pathbreaking comparative methodology labelled 'juridical comparative hermeneutics' within civil law systems and across the civil-common law divide, which offers innovative analytical tools that afford a deep understanding of the evolution of the disciplines.

The chapters collected in this book explore the place and role of judge-made private law in an emerging European polity. Examining case-law from the perspective of different theories and viewpoints, scholars and judges assess and reflect on the role of judges in civil cases for polity-building in Europe. The chapters thus present a kaleidoscopic view on the dynamics of private law adjudication against a European backdrop. The book aims to add a private legal perspective to existing discourses in European constitutional law on Europe's political constellation. It aspires to enrich two debates – the first on the influence of fundamental rights in private legal relations, and the second on the constitutional dimension of European private law. The contributions are placed within a framework of five sub-categories or dimensions of judge-made European private law: politics of European private law adjudication, rights, remedies, representation and reflections of judges on specific cases.

This book is written in honour of Hans-W. Micklitz for his jubilee 70th birthday and the closure of his twelve-year term as the Chair for Economic Law at the European University Institute (EUI). Hans-W. Micklitz has gained international recognition for dedicating his extensive and fruitful career to diverse areas of law: European Economic Law, European Private Law, National and European Consumer Law, Legal Theory, theories of Private Law and Social Justice. This book is a product of the collaborative endeavors of its contributors, who all have a special connection with Hans W. Micklitz as his doctoral supervisees or research assistants. The collection of twenty chapters is to be read as the influence of Hans's dialogues in the early stage of the academic career of thirty-one young legal scholars. The volume is divided into three sections devoted to subjects that have received Hans's attention while at the EUI: EU Consumer Law (part I); European Private Law and Access Justice (part II); the CJEU between the individual citizen and the Member States (part III).

There remains an urgent need for a deeper discussion of the theoretical, political and federal dimensions of the European codification project. While much valuable work has already been undertaken, the chapters in this volume take as their starting point the proposition that further reflection and critical thought will enhance the quality and efficacy of the on-going work of the various codification bodies. The volume contains chapters by representatives of the Common Frame of Reference, the Study Group and the Acquis Group as well as by those who have not been involved in particular projects but who have previously commented more distantly on their work - for instance those belonging to the Trento Group, and the Social Justice Group. The chapters between them represent the most comprehensive attempt so far to survey the state of the codification project, its theoretical, political and federal foundations and the future prospects for enforcement and compliance.

In step with its rapid progress to the centre of modern social, political, and economic life, the internet has proven a convenient vehicle for the commission of unprecedented levels of copyright infringement. Given the virtually insurmountable obstacles to successful pursuit of actual perpetrators, it has become common for intermediaries –providers of internet-related infrastructure and services – to face liability as accessories. Despite advances in policy at the European level, the law in this area remains far from consistently applicable. This is the first book to locate and clarify the substantive rules of European intermediary accessory liability in copyright and to formulate harmonised European norms to govern this complicated topic. With a detailed comparative analysis of relevant regimes in three major Member State jurisdictions – England, France, and Germany – the author elucidates the relationship between these rules and the demands of EU law on fundamental rights and the principles of European tort law. She clearly presents the interrelations between such areas as the following: - accessory liability in tort; - joint tortfeasance; - European fault-based liability: fault, causation, defences; - negligence; - negligence balancing: rights-based or utility-based?; - Germany’s “disturbance liability” (Störerhaftung); - fair balance in human rights; - end-users’ fundamental rights; - The European Commission’s 2015 Communication on a Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe; - The E-Commerce Directive and other relevant provisions; - Safe harbours: mere conduit, caching, hosting; - Intermediary actions: monitoring, filtering, blocking, removal of infringing content; and - application of remedies: damages and injunctions. The strong points of each national system are highlighted, as are the commonalities between them, and the author uses these to build a proposed harmonised European framework for intermediary liability for copyright infringement. She concludes with suggestions for the future possible integration of the proposed framework into EU law. The issue of the liability of internet intermediaries for third party copyright infringement has entered into the political agenda across the globe, giving rise to one of the most complex, contentious, and fascinating debates in modern copyright law. This book offers an opportunity for a re-conceptualisation and rationalisation of the applicable law, in a way which additionally better accounts for the cross-border nature of the internet. It will be of inestimable value to many interested parties – lawyers, internet intermediaries, NGOs, policymakers, universities, libraries, researchers, lobbyists – in matters regarding the information society.

The most up-to-date and contextualised offering for comparative law students and scholars, referencing the newest research in the field.

The title of the Hague Yearbook of International Law reflects the close ties which have always existed between the AAA and the City of The Hague with its international law institutions, and indicates the Yearbook’s aim of devoting attention to developments taking place in the international law institutions based in The Hague. However, the Yearbook has a broader scope as well: to offer a platform for review of new developments in the field of international law. As of the 2010 Volume, the Yearbook will be compiled by a new and expanded Editorial Board, offering fresh ideas and a new approach. A newly established Advisory Board has also been added, including ICJ Judge Bruno Simma, Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Jacomijn J. van Haersolte-van Hof, advocate (advocaat) at HaersolteHof and arbitrator (The Netherlands) and Professor Peter Hilpold, Innsbruck University (Austria). Sections have been created on public international law, private international law, international investment law and international criminal law, containing in-depth articles on current issues. The breadth of the Yearbook’s content thus offers an interesting and valuable illustration of the dynamic developments in the various sub-areas of international law.