European Private Law as the New Driver of European Integration

Abstract

This lecture looks into the role of law in the European integration process. It claims that after the 1990s and early 2000s, when the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty had already given shape to the internal market through the establishment of the four fundamental market freedoms, an unexpected field of law is playing an increased role in shaping European integration: Private Law. This is surprising, first, because, private law is outside of EU competence and, second, because the big project of the early 2000s – the European Civil Code – failed. Be that as it may, especially since the 2010s, the Court of Justice case law has been substantially shaping and re-making national legal contract law and enforcement systems. By interpreting broadly the Unfair Contract Terms Directive, the CJEU has pushed towards substantial law reform in some countries, especially CEE countries, not only covering private law but also procedural law. Arguably, not much is left of the Member State competence in contract law and its procedural autonomy. This argument shed lights on a new motor of European integration.

Speaker

Irina Domurath - Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (Chile)

Bio

Irina Domurath is Adjunct Professor at the Adolfo Ibañez University in Santiago de Chile. She is a Lawyer from Germany and did her PhD in Iceland and Copenhagen. She researches the role of private law in political and economic processes. Her case studies are housing, data, and finance. In the previous semester, she was a Visiting Fellow at the SIS.