This classic textbook provides a thorough overview of European private international law. It is essential reading for private international law students who need to study the European perspective in order to fully get to grips the subject. Opening with foundational questions, it clearly explains the subject's central tenets: the Brussels I, Rome I and Rome II Regulations (jurisdiction, applicable law for contracts and tort). Additional chapters explore the Succession Regulation, private international law and insolvency, freedom of establishment, and the impact of PIL on corporate social responsibility. The new edition includes a new chapter on the Hague instruments and an opening discussion on the impact of Brexit. Drawing on the author's rich experience, the new edition retains the book's hallmarks of insight and clarity of expression ensuring it maintains its position as the leading textbook in the field.
The book deals with the impact of EU law on private relations. While EU law has principally developed through vertical relations of the Union and its Member States with private persons, its foundations, principles and enforcement mechanisms are increasingly affecting the growing body of EU law governing horizontal relations between individuals and undertakings. The results are sometimes unexpected and sometimes inappropriate.
European law affects national private law in many ways. This is not only true for EU Directives, but also for the EU Treaties, the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights and the general principles of EU law. This book explores the influence of European law on legal relationships between individuals.
EU Private Law and the CISG examines selected EU directives in the field of private law and their effects on the national private law systems of several EU Member States and discusses certain specific concepts of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in light of the CISG’s recent fortieth anniversary. The most prominent influence of EU law on national private law systems is in the area of the law of obligations, thus the book focuses on several EU private law directives that cover the issues belonging to contract and tort law, as interpreted in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. EU private law concepts need to be interpreted autonomously and uniformly rather than through the lens of national private law systems. The same is true for the CISG which has not only been one of the most successful instruments of the international trade law unification but had also influenced both the EU private law and domestic laws. In Part I, focused on the EU private law and its effects for national laws, chapters examine the recent Digital Content and Services Directive and its likely impact on the contract law of the UK and Ireland, the role aggressive commercial practices play in EU banking and credit legislation, the applicability of the EU private international law rules to collective redress, the unfair contract terms regime of the Late Payment Directive and its transposition into Croatian law, the implementation of the Commercial Agency Directive in Denmark, Estonia and Germany, and disgorgement of profits as remedy provided in the Trade Secrets Directive. In Part II, dealing with selected CISG issues, chapters discuss the autonomous interpretation of CISG’s concept of sale by auction and its notion of intellectual property, as well as the CISG’s principle of freedom of form and the possibility for reservations with the effect of its exclusion. The book will be of interest to legal scholars in the field of EU private law and international trade law, as well as to the students, practitioners, members of law reform bodies, and civil servants in Europe, and beyond.
The Rome I Regulation on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations has unified the conflict of laws rules of the Member States. The influence of the European Union upon Private International Law goes beyond positive harmonisation however. There is a certain tension between European law and PIL. European law is concerned with whether the imposition of a rule constitutes a restriction to the internal market whereas PIL does not seek to neutralise the disadvantages that result from differences between national laws but instead tries to locate the geographical centre of the legal relationship. The present book attempts to identify the methodological disharmony between the two legal disciplines in the regulation of cross border contracts and proposes suggestions to enhance their mutual understanding.
This volume focuses on the interplay between, and influence exerted on, approaches and legal concepts of private law-including property rights law-by primary EU law, particularly with internal market law. The European Court of Justice has developed concepts in private law cases which are different in substance from the concepts which exist in the private law systems of the Member States. This project aims to present developments in present law of which EU lawyers and private lawyers generally are unaware. It gives ground-breaking analyses of private law concepts (the person, property, contract and tort, and remedies) which are used, created, or adjusted by the Court. Each analysis is a result of obtaining insights in the substantive meaning of the conceptual subjects addressed in the Court's case law, disconnected from national meanings of such concepts. The analysis takes as its starting point the case before continuing on to the concept, not the other way around; the cases and the facts behind the cases are the starting point. Preconceptions based on national private law systems are avoided. In addition to an introductory chapter offering broader contextual information, this volume is built around contributions covering: i) the free movement of goods (Articles 34 and 35 TFEU) and services (Article 56 TFEU); ii) the free movement of capital (Article 62 TFEU) and the freedom of establishment (Article 49 TFEU); iii) competition law (Articles 101 and 102 TFEU); iv) State aid law (Articles 107 and 108 TFEU); and v) intellectual property law. The contributions and possible conclusions were extensively discussed in two workshops held at the EUI in Florence in 2013 and at the University of Nijmegen in 2014. The editors would like to thank A. Hartkamp and the late N. Reich, who encouraged and accompanied the project with their enthusiasm and deep knowledge, and the ERC authorities. This book will be useful for academics, practitioners and students interested in EU internal market law and the relationship between primary EU law and private law. Subject: EU Law, Private Law]
In this volume, the Study Group and the Acquis Group present the first academic Draft of a Common Frame of Reference (DCFR). The Draft is based in part on a revised version of the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and contains Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law in an interim outline edition. It covers the books on contracts and other juridical acts, obligations and corresponding rights, certain specific contracts, and non-contractual obligations. One purpose of the text is to provide material for a possible "political" Common Frame of Reference (CFR) which was called for by the European Commission's Action Plan on a More Coherent European Contract Law of January 2003.
This concise book is mainly intended to be used as an introduction to the rules of private international law belonging to the legal system of the European Union. It provides legal practitioners with an overview of this highly complex field of law and can serve as an introductory textbook in elective undergraduate courses and master programs offered today by many law schools both to their own students and to exchange students from other countries. The book will hopefully also be useful as a spring-board towards more profound studies of statutory texts, case law and legal literature. Michael Bogdan is Professor of Comparative and Private International Law at the University of Lund, Sweden.
Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law Current Challenges and the Way Forward Edited by: Ferdinand Wollenschläger, Wolfgang Wurmnest & Thomas M.J. Möllers The overlapping European Union (EU) regimes of competition law and State aid law both provide mechanisms allowing private plaintiffs to claim compensation for losses or damages. It is thus of significant practical value to provide, as this book does, analysis and guidance on achieving enforcement of such claims, written by renowned authorities in the two fields. The book examines the two areas of law both from an EU perspective and from the perspectives of private enforcement in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. In country reports for these major jurisdictions, as well as in more general and comparative chapters, the authors focus on such issues as the following: impediments to private enforcement; which entity is liable for damages; binding effect of decisions of competition authorities; limitation of actions; collective actions and pooling of claims; enforcement of the standstill obligation (Article 108(3) TFEU); remedies and information deficits; cooperation and coordination between national courts and the European Commission; transposition of the so-called Damages Directive (Directive 2014/104/EU) by the EU Member States; extent to which the strengthening of private enforcement of competition law has a spillover effect on State aid law; and prospects for harmonisation of State aid law. A concluding section identifies enforcement deficits and proposes ways to improve the existing legal framework. As an in-depth assessment of key obstacles and best practices in private enforcement actions, this highly informative and practical volume facilitates choice of the best forum for competition and State aid law cases. Academics and practitioners engaged with this important area of European law will appreciate the authors’ awareness of the economic need and legal particularities which could generate an effective European system of private enforcement of legitimate claims under EU competition and State aid law.
