Black Lists in EU Contract Law

Abstract:     
The policing of consumer contracts relies mostly on general clauses. EU legislators, however, have occasionally resorted also to ‘black lists’, which displace judicial discretion and identify as void a finite set of contractual terms. Black lists epitomize an unusually high degree of supranational interference with both private autonomy and states’ sovereignty, and are therefore a privileged stand-point for investigating the EU private law project. This essay explores the regulatory, distributive, and discursive ambiguity of black lists, and posits that their normative desirability cannot be assessed without a systemic appraisal of the socio-political dynamics of European integration.

Keywords: black lists, consumer contracts, private law, European Union, harmonization

JEL Classification: K12, K20, K33

Accepted Paper Series