• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
The goal of this paper is to present aims, methods and features of the research carried out by the ‘The Common Core of European Private Law” project in the field of tort law. Accordingly, we will first depict the immediate and long-term goals of the ‘Common Core’ endeavour, as well as its methodology and organisation. We will then illustrate the four tort law volumes that have been so far published within the project. This will lead us to find out the distinctive tenets of the Common Core approach as applied to tort law issues, and to put forward some remarks about the scenarios that this approach, and those tenets are bound to open.

European tort law, Common Core of European Private Law project

Abstract:
In the last decades, building a common European tort law has become a primary goal for many European institutions and research groups. On the one hand, EU institutions frequently highlight the need of simplifying the current diversity in European tort law, and try to achieve this goal injecting the European legal framework with (so far quite incoherent) pieces of legislation. On the other hand, many research groups aim to enhance the Europanization process through means that are much differentiated one to the other. Some of these groups (like the European Group on Tort Law and the Study Group on a European Civil Code) adopt a top-down approach, and seek to draft a ‘soft’ European tort law. Others (e.g. the ‘Ius Commune Casebook for a Common Law of Europe’ project and the ‘Common Core of European Private Law’ project) follow a bottom-up path, committed as they are to develop a better knowledge on tort law across the European law-users. Despite the number and the qualities of such enterprises, there is no agreement on what should be done nor on who should do it. It is from this debate that the paper takes off, aiming to offer an overview of the endeavours currently under way, of the different techniques and methodologies they adopt, and of the possible outcomes that they are likely to produce in the short run as well as in the long run.

European tort law