The Visible Hand of European Regulatory Private Law—The Transformation of European Private Law from Autonomy to Functionalism in Competition and Regulation

Summary:

This article discusses European private law and the driving economic and political forces behind it. The article analyses the drive for a normative model to give shape to private law pluralism. It aims to develop a counter-project (Gegenentwurf) to the acquis principles and the Draft Common Frame of Reference understood as a coherent body of European private law rules, a model which leaves room for national private legal orders, but takes into consideration the ongoing process of Europeanisation via the European legislator, or via soft-law building. The multi-level structure of the European Community calls for a concept that allows determination of the norms to be elaborated and enforced.

The article argues that visible European private law (the economic side) allows for a new understanding of European private law in these selected areas, an understanding which must be made compatible with traditional private law.

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