Common Law for Europe

Gian Antonio Benacchio is Professor of Private Comparative Law of the Faculty of Law at the University of Trento.Barbara Pasa is Lecturer and Research Fellow of the Faculty of Law at the University of Turin.

• Introduction, Chapter I: Private law of the European Community: the process of harmonisation, uniformisation and unification. 1. Foreword 2. European Union and European Community 3. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe 4. ‘European’ federalism 5. The last enlargement 6. Economic and monetary integration 7. The acquis communautaire 8. The dynamics of legal transplants 9. Defining ‘European Community Private Law’ 10. Unification and uniformisation of the law 11. Harmonisation of the law 11. Effects on national laws 12. ‘Communitarisation’ of national laws 13. Areas of law which are affected by European Community Private law 14. Comparative law and European Community Private law Bibliography Chapter I Chapter II: The diffusion of legal rules and models and the transposition of concepts 1. Foreword 2. The diffusion of intra-Community models 3. The incorporation of extra-Community models 4. Compromise models 5. The Court of Justice, national courts and the circulation of legal models 6. Competition between legal models, political forces and economic policies 7. Language problems 8. Old terms for new concepts: some examples 9. The new concepts Bibliography Chapter II Chapter III: Harmonisation as an instrument for the ‘Reinforced Pre-Accession Strategy’ 1. Foreword 2. The enlargement of the European Union to include the CEECs 3. The legal frame of reference 3a) Europe Agreements 3b) White Paper on ‘Preparation of the Associated Countries of Central and Eastern Europe for integration into the internal market of the Union’ 3c) Agenda 2000. ‘For a stronger and wider Union-The challenge of enlargement’ 3d) PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programmes 3e) ‘Reinforced pre-accession strategy’: the Accession Partnerships 3f) APs and Regular Reports of the Commission 3g) APs and National Programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAAs) 4. The Accession Treaty 5. The central role played by the European Council in the enlargement process 6. The activity of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Bibliography Chapter III Chapter IV Institutions and sources of Community law 1. Foreword 2. European integration 2a) Community and national competences 2b) The principle of subsidiarity 2c) The Constitution for Europe and the new rules 3. The institutional actors of European integration 4. The sources of Community law and their effect 5. Direct effect of Treaty provisions 6. Supremacy of Treaty provisions over domestic law 7. Direct effect of Regulations 8. Supremacy of Regulations over domestic laws 9. The Directives 10. The Decisions of the Commission Bibliography Chapter IV Chapter V: The adaptation of national laws to Community law 1. Foreword 2. The transposition of directives: the Italian 'Community Act' as an illustration 3. Remedies for failure to implement or incorrect implementation of the directives 3a) Directives which implement Treaty provisions which are already binding 3b) Directives of a prohibitory nature 3c) Directives which are sufficiently precise and unconditional 4. National entities bound to apply non-implemented directives 5. Vertical and horizontal direct effect of non-implemented directives 6. The position of national courts 7. The interpretation of national law ‘in conformity’ with Community law 8. Member States’ liability in damages for breach of Community law Bibliography Chapter V Chapter VI: A Common Law for Europe? 1. Foreword 2. Community law, Comparative law and European law 3. A return to jus commune? 4. The lex mercatoria and other unifying commercial practices 5. The initiatives for unification: Code, Restatement, and Collection of principles 5a) The Pavia group 5b) The McGregor Contract Code 5c) The Principles of European Contract Law 5d) The European Civil Code Project 5e) The Trento Common Core Project 5f) The Acquis Group 5g) Other initiatives 6. A view of European common law: uniformisation and diversity Bibliography Chapter VI List of abbreviations, List of Tables, Index