A Self-Sufficient European Private Law – A Viable Concept?

Abstract

This working paper collects the contributions to the first external workshop within the ERPL project that took place on 4 and 5 May 2012 at the EUI. The workshop aimed to clarify the key parameters to be used for analysing the claimed transformation process of European Private Law from ‘Autonomy to Functionalism in Competition and Regulation’. Apart from the papers describing the features of the transformation process, separate sessions examined the four parameters (or possible scenarios) around which the project is conceptualised, (1) conflict and resistance, (2) substitution and intrusion, (3) hybridization and (4) convergence. These parameters were examined from a theoretical perspective, but also for their more specific implications for the project design and for testing the hypothesis of the emergence of a self-sufficient or self-standing European Private Law. Apart from the presentation of the project members’ research, contributions from eminent scholars in European private law provided an outsider’s view on the parameters. Finally, the working paper also includes some of the comments offered at a round table that critically examined the project design.

Keywords: European private law, autonomy, functionalism