Private Law, Global Governance and the European Union

Abstract

This contribution explores the interface between private law, global governance and the EU by focusing on the role that the EU plays, and should play, in relation to the use of forms of private law-based governance to make them suit public policy objectives at the European and global levels, on the one hand, and the pursuit of regulatory action to correct excesses of private norm-setting that go against global public goods (e.g., a free trading system and the stability of financial markets), on the other. Through examples concerning food standards, forest certification and credit default swaps, this contribution examines how the EU has taken initiatives that put at use or regulate private law-based governance schemes. It also assesses how the EU could best proceed in this area, taking into account its own constitutional principles and its cross-cutting external relations objectives laid down in Article 21 TEU.

Keywords: global governance and private law, private law-based governance, EU contribution, private standard-setting, private food safety standards, private forest certification, credit default swaps