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Abstract:
This paper considers the recent empirical findings on the application of the exclusionary rule for pure economic loss in European case law. Considering the judicial applications of the rule in 13 European jurisdictions, the analysis shows that a key factor in determining the optimal scope of the economic loss rule is in the relationship between pure economic loss and social loss. After identifying several factual categories, this paper considers a restatement of the exclusionary rule consistent with the economic model of optimal liability, according to which A plaintiff cannot recover damages for a purely private economic loss.

The observed trends in European case law support the hypothesis that the practical contours of European economic loss rules - difficult to illuminate with traditional legal doctrines - follow the predicates of the efficiency criterion.

Abstract:
Law and economics shows that a key factor in determining the optimal economic loss rule is found in the relationship between pure economic loss and social loss. Economic loss should be compensable in torts only to the extent that it corresponds to a socially relevant loss. In this paper we undertake a comparative evaluation of the economic loss rule to verify whether modern legal systems, although not formally adopting the economic criterion, define the exclusionary rule in light of efficiency considerations. The comparative analysis reveals that the substantive applications of the economic loss rule in European jurisdictions are consistent with the predicates of economic analysis.

Comparative law, Pure economic loss, Economic loss rule

Abstract:
The real and general problem faced by tort law consists in the setting of technically and socially acceptable boundaries to the shifting of losses incurred by the victim onto another party. Whenever this shifting is neither governed by property law nor regulated by a contract between these persons, it is up to tort law to provide the solution. Consequently - and in spite of any positivistic approach one may take -, the question of whether or not awarding compensation to the victim falls upon the interpreter charged with making (or inspiring) the choice, that is, the judge (and the scholar).

All of this is possibly true of many fields of law. But within private law, and tort law in particular, it does seem to be the appropriate way to appraise what the making of law entails. The point, indeed, is that tort law constantly reveals its interpretative fate, its interpretative mode of existence.

European law, tort law

Abstract:
In this paper I address the European private law codification and the reasons for which this topic is so much debated within the European legal community. I approach these issues by focusing, sub 2, on the immediate and long term goals of the major European comparative law enterprises. Then I tackle, sub 3, the main differences between them and, finally, I try to put forward some remarks about the feasibility (and desirability) of a European Civil Code (sub 4 and 5), paying special attention to some questions implied by - but not always made explicit within - the discussions about the European codification: the role of scholarship within the European legal stage (sub 6) and (sub 7) the inner meaning of the ongoing 'legal uniformity v. legal diversity' debate.

legal integration, European Civil Code

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:
The primary purpose of this article is to enrich the understanding of tort law in Ethiopia and Eritrea and how it affects the environment. Its standpoint is both positive and normative. Its secondary goal is to clarify the affinities, often hidden, between the issues raised by tort law in developing countries now and the same issues as they emerged in the Western tradition in the past. Methodologically, the article considers the interplay between two powerful tolls of analysis: law and economics, and legal pluralism as informed by the doctrine of legal stratification).

Tort law, Ethiopia, Eritrea

Abstract:
This contribution addresses the issues implied by the following questions: (a) What is the contract law to be codified? (b) What is the possible impact of a European Contract Law Codification upon the other private law fields? (c) Which are the driving forces behind and ahead the European codification process?

legal integration, Europe, contract law

Abstract:
This essay deals with needs and problems of the initiatives aiming at a legal integration in Europe. In the first part of the paper (II.-IV.) the need of a wider and deeper knowledge of legal data is stressed by the author through the comparison of (overt) methods and (hidden) implications pursued by research-oriented enterprises - such as «The Common Core Project» or the «European Case-books Project» - on the one hand, and the initiatives whose goal is the creation of rules - such as the UNIDROIT Principles or the «Lando Commission» - on the other. The second part of the article (V.-VI.) highlights the reality of multi-level legal systems as one of the most important problems any integrative enterprise has to face. The author's ranking and analysis of the legal layers at work in the European societies - e.g.: different levels of local customary rules, 'national' rules, tansnational business rules, EU rules - aims at making out, at least, how fully aware a Code or any other authoritative regulation has to be about the kind and level of integration to pursue.

legal integration, Europe, Common Core Project

Abstract:
The Study Group on Social Justice in European Private Law are: Gert Bruggemeier (Bremen), Mauro Bussani (Trieste), Hugh Collins (London), Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi (Bremen), Giovanni Comande (Pisa), Muriel Fabre-Magnan (Nantes), Stefan Grundmann (Berlin), Martijn Hesselink (Amsterdam) (Chairman), Christian Joerges (Florence), Brigitta Lurger (Graz), Ugo Mattei (Torino), Marisa Meli (Catania), Jacobien Rutgers (Amsterdam), Christoph Schmidt (Florence), Jane Smith (Bremen), Ruth Sefton-Green (Paris), Horatia Muir Watt (Paris), Thomas Wilhelmsson (Helsinki).