In this paper we criticize the so-called 'more economic approach' to European competition law for its disregard of the importance of a functional system of private law. The more economic approach presumes that vertical integration is an economically efficient governance-mechanism. This...

Markets are not a natural phenomenon but depend on a complex set of institutions. Commercial law enables and facilitates at-arm's-length market exchange. Competition law regulates freedom of contract in order to protect it from self-abolition. On the domestic level, these core pillars of the...

International business disputes rarely go to court, but sometimes they do.By virtue of the internationally accepted principle of party autonomy, business partners involved in cross-border transactions are entitled to select their forum of choice for any dispute which may arise from their...

Access to Court is a gobal principle, though the consequences of this principle are interpreted differently in the U.S. and Europe. Neither International Commercial Arbitration nor International Litigation can offer an effective access to court for cross-border commercial contracts. Whereas...

Since the golden age of the nation state, the extent to which commerce is conducted across borders has risen substantially. Economic globalization thus has led to a shift in the demand structure for institutions that support commerce. Over the past forty years the need for institutions adapted...

This paper is the introduction essay to an edited collection entitled “Law, Economics, and Evolutionary Theory”, forthcoming with Edward Elgar. The volume brings together work by legal scholars, economists, historians and sociologists and aims at a critical investigation of the parallel and...

During the last decade fitness has become the most popular sport in Germany and many other countries. Whereas sport was traditionally organised within the public sector, people today willingly exchange their sovereignty as a voter, tax payer, or club member for sovereignty as a consumer of...

This paper elaborates on a fundamental transformation of maritime law. On the basis of statistics it is argued that the London Maritime Arbitration Association (LMAA) has become the dominant provider on the global market for dispute resolution in the maritime industry, but currently is...

Lex mercatoria or Law Merchant (‘LM') is said to be the self-made law of international commerce. According to its proponents, LM is an autonomous legal order that not only supplements state commercial law, but works as a substitute for it. The ‘ancient' LM, which accompanied the commercial...