RICERCA ITALIANA     

EUROPEAN PRIVATE LAW BETWEEN INTERNAL MARKET AND EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP

Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Abstract

Rules and principles of European private law raised progressively in the European integration scenario during the last decades. Such rules and principles have a transverse importance in respect of the single EC Member States.
European private law cannot be easily defined and several definitions of such expression have been offered. In general, European private law fuels from EC and national sources and also from commercial customs and legal Scholars essays and theories (in a reconnaissance and in a constructive prospective at the same time). It consists of rules and principles deemed common to each EC Member State legal system (or generally adopted in such systems). Such rules and principles link EC law and national legal systems together, as well as single national legal systems with each other (through EC law).
In such context, it seems correct to structure European private law as a legal system (even if still incomplete) which operates on various levels of effectiveness (both national and supra-national) and in which national rules and principles regarding the relations between private citizens are conformed by the European law and partnered by “European Law” rules and principles which are common to each legal system.
These rules and princicompany law rightples can be found in various fields, such as the consumers rights, the family life protection, the data protection, the intervention of EC legislator with reference to family relationships and >>>

Principal Investigator

Raffaele Torino Università degli Studi ROMA TRE

Research Objectives

The aim of this search is verify if the point of reference of the European private law’s development – currently developed in a impulsive fragmented way without clear and accepted basic politics values (from a Community and a national perspective) - could be not only the European Common Market, intended as synonym of common space and common law and in the contest of the exercise of the four fundamental freedoms (free circulation of goods, people, services and capitals), but also (and how much) the European citizenship. In this respect the European citizenship is intended as a condition of subjectivity, that, connected with the National identity and within a space of freedom, safety and justice, completes and enrich the individual's right, bringing them to a dimension of rules and principles of a European private law.
It will be examined if the fundamental values of the European citizenship (dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity and justice) will be able to influence and in which ways with the historic aim to realise the economic integration between the Member States.
It will be also examined whether the European citizenship as a point of reference of the European private law can be considered as a matching point between the multiple law sources (local, national, European) so to become a turning point in the multi – level law system based on the "principle of proximity" (under which the decisions implying rules ought to be taken as near as >>>

First Results

The main results of this research are:
a) the organization of an international conference concerning issues of European Private Law arising from the values of European Citizenship and the possibility for European Citizenship to become a fountain guide for consolidation of Private Law throughout Europe. The results of the meeting should be published;
b) the publication of all the results obtained by the group of researchers relating to the option to put the European citizenship as a key for interpreting the multi – level law system that is being constructed among the law systems of the EU member States.
These results should supply an important contribution for further studies and considerations. The results should also constitute an incentive for further debates with regard to a process of constitutionalisation of the developments of European Private Law, inspired by such values as dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity and justice.
The outcome of this research could provide relevant contribution to future developments of European Private Law, making the European Institutions more aware of values such as dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, justice and therefore take them into consideration while drafting laws of EPL. Also, said values should be applied by judges and scholars during their interpretation of the laws in effect.

Timescale

12 months

National and international background

The initiatives carried out and still in progress within the European academic culture, the legal professions and the EC institutions and concerning the elaboration, reconstruction and analysis of the European Private Law are copious.
In the field of Contract law, especially with reference to the customers, in addition to the several acts enacted by EC Institutions (particularly in order to protect the customers), we have the EC Commission Communication on the European Contract Law dated 2001, the Action Plan of the EC Commission named "A More Coherent European Contract Law" dated 2003, the Resolution of the EC Council named "A More Coherent European Contract Law" dated 2003, the Communication of the EC Commission named “European Contract Law and review of the acquis: prospective for the future” dated 2004, the launch, during 2004, of the Joint Network on European private Law – Network of Excellence, which has been given the task to deliver to the EC Commission the “Common Principles of European Contract Law” (“CoPECL”), that will constitute the Common Frame of Reference (“CFR”), designed to be an instrument to improve the coherence and the rigour of the EC legislation, the creation, during 2004, of a net of representatives of the costumers organizations, the industry, the entrepreneurship and the legal professions (“CFR-net”), the Resolution of the EC Parliament on the “European Contract Law and review of the acquis: prospective for the >>>