Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Hesselink, Martijn W. --- "A Spontaneous Order for Europe? Why Hayek’s Libertarianism is not the Right Way Forward for European Private Law" [2010] ELECD 223; in Micklitz, Hans-W.; Cafaggi, Fabrizio (eds), "European Private Law after the Common Frame of Reference" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: European Private Law after the Common Frame of Reference

Editor(s): Micklitz, Hans-W.; Cafaggi, Fabrizio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444072

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: A Spontaneous Order for Europe? Why Hayek’s Libertarianism is not the Right Way Forward for European Private Law

Author(s): Hesselink, Martijn W.

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

7. A spontaneous order for Europe? Why
Hayek's libertarianism is not the right
way forward for European private law
Martijn W. Hesselink

1. INTRODUCTION
With the recent publication of the draft Common Frame of Reference,1 the
process of revising the Consumer Acquis under way,2 and the idea of an
optional European code of contract law under consideration,3 today the
Europeanisation of private law is at a defining stage where crucial choices will
have to be made. Some of the main issues include regulatory legitimacy (who
should bring about the revised acquis, the CFR and any optional code of
contract law: scholars, courts, or parliament?), the level and scope of manda-
tory rules for the protection of weaker parties such as consumers and SMEs,


1 Von Bar et al. (eds.), Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European
Private Law; Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) Interim Outline Edition
(Munich: Sellier, 2008).
2 Green Paper on the Review of the Consumer Acquis, Brussels, 8 Feb. 2007,
COM(2007)744.
3 See A More Coherent European Contract Law, an Action Plan, Brussels, 12
Feb. 2003, COM(2003)68 final. See also: European Contract Law and the Revision of
the Acquis: the Way Forward, 11 Oct. 2004, COM(2004)651 final. Today, the idea of
an optional code of contracts seems to be lower on the political agenda than it was in
2003 when the Commission launched its ambitious Action Plan (see the First Annual
Progress Report on The Common ...