This introduction to Methodology in Private Law Theory: Between New Private Law and Rechtsdogmatik (Thilo Kuntz and Paul B. Miller, eds., Oxford University Press, forthcoming) provides a thematic overview methodological questions and positions taken in contemporary American and German private...

In the common law legal system, the main sources of law are habits that live in society as a legal culture, as well as agreements that have been agreed upon by the parties. Meanwhile, in the civil law legal system, the regulations set by the government are the main source of law. There are two...

Administrative law has the objective of protecting individuals from the possible abuse that they can encounter from powerful administrative branch of the government. This law also governs the conditions and procedures in which administrative decisions can be reviewed by court. However, judicial...

Which methodology should legal science aspire to if it is to find its own, distinctive character as a science of the law? Is there any genuine legal methodology to cope with the doctrinal riddles of contracts, torts and property? Does the social embeddedness of private law institutions push...

It is universally accepted that, subject to various restrictions including remoteness and mitigation of damage, the purpose of damages for breach of civil obligations is to put the parties whose rights have been breached in the same position, so far as money can do so, as if their rights had...

Global financial markets are among the most extensively regulated markets in the world economy. This poses significant challenges from a private law perspective when regulatory rules interfere with private rights and obligations. The article examines the potential of Transnational Commercial Law...

Blockchain, or “distributed ledger” technology, has been devised as an alternative to the law of finance. While it has become clear by now that regulation in the public interest is necessary, for example to avoid money laundering, drug dealing or tax evasion, the particularly thorny issues...

Verbriefungstransaktionen (oder sogenannte ABS-Finanzierungen ) sind eine gängige Finanzierungsform, deren rechtliche Struktur insb im österreichischen Zivil- und Insolvenzrecht eine Vielzahl von grundlegenden Fragen aufwirft. Das vorliegende Werk beleuchtet die Ausgestaltung der...

Katharina Pistor’s recent work has revealed a deep justice deficit in private law, raising fundamental questions about how it could be reduced. While Pistor favours piecemeal bottom-up solutions to instances of injustice, Martijn Hesselink proposes a more radical top-down strategy – the...

A growing chorus of scholars, privacy professionals, and policymakers think that individual rights of control—rights to access, correct, and delete data, as well as rights to opt out of tracking and to humans in the loop of automated decision-making—are effective means of regulating the...

Judges decide multiple types of disputes, including disputes involving the property or contractual rights of two private parties (their “private rights”). The nature of these private rights has long been the focus of philosophical debates between conventionalists, non-conventionalists, and...

The paper discusses how European private law was studied and adopted in Japan in the 19th and 20th century and whether the private law developed there as a "fruit of comparative law" could serve if not as a basis, then as inspiration for a unified European private law today. This is the English...

In many industries, companies rely on private third-party audits to monitor their suppliers’ adherence to various standards. These audits are frequently paid for by the entity being audited, which creates a conflict of interest that incentivizes auditors to reduce the burden of audits by...

Stablecoins are one of the cornerstones of the crypto world. They’ve attracted significant attention over the past few years, ranging from Wall Street to kitchen table investors, and even the White House. As a less volatile alternative to crypto-assets like bitcoin, stablecoins have the...

This is an introduction of future students of (European) consumer law to its main concepts, such as average and vulnerable consumers, unfairness, product risks. Upon reading you may expect to start being able to place this research area within the legal architecture of European Private Law. You...

Consumer litigation funding (CLF) provides non-recourse cash advances to consumer plaintiffs pursuing a tort complaint. This paper examines how access to this funding impacts outcomes in the legal system. Using exogenous variation in access to CLF resulting from staggered state- level law...

"Selective marital surname" has reemerged in media headlines. Japan appears to be the only country in the world that holds onto the unitary surname system, under which 96% of wives relinquish their birth surnames. Majority of the Japanese population seems to accept, wittingly or unwittingly, the...

This article raises three doctrinal myths within Chinese tort law upon the enactment of Chinese Civil Code. These myths led to difficulties in understanding Chinese tort law. More specifically, it is unclear what is the exact scope of rights protected under tort law, if personality rights claim...

The disruptive nature of commercial drone technology presents transformational benefits and serious risks to the internal market’s safety, privacy, and sustainability. The accelerated rate of digitalisation; innovations in drone performance; and increasing expansion of technological...

When we think of the law of terrorism, we think of the state and the terrorists. We think of the many steps that states take to detect, deter, and destroy terrorist groups. But that frame captures only a small piece of the overall picture of terrorism regulation. Regulation directed at and...

Shifts in academic paradigms are rare. Still, it was not long ago that the values taken to govern the private law were thought to be distinct from the values governing taxation and transfer. The conventional, indeed, the nearly universal view of Rawlsianism—the overwhelmingly dominant theory...

In Europe, legislators are increasingly introducing sustainability goals into the system of private law. By prohibiting certain conduct, increasing transparency, nudging companies, as well as changing institutions, procedures and liability regimes, legislators complement private law with tools...

Despite the growing need for surrogate decision-making for older adults, little is known about how surrogates make decisions and whether advance directives would change decision-making. We conducted a nationally representative experimental survey that cross-randomized cognitive impairment,...

Barbara Pozzo (Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como) / Private law and environmental sustainability -- Dario Hug (University of Zurich/University of Neuchâtel and KU Leuven) / Towards a sustainable interpretation of standard contract terms? -- Radosveta Vassileva (Middlesex University) /...

One of the conjectured benefits of establishing the legal recognition of samesex partnerships is that it would promote a culture of responsibility and commitment among homosexuals. A specific implication of this claim is that "gay marriage" will reduce the prevalence of sexually transmitted...

In the spring of 2017, I published my translation of the entire Louisiana Civil Code into German. The translation marks a milestone in comparative law and legal translation; for the first time in its history, the Louisiana Civil Code is available in German. This article discusses discoveries I...

The Chinese Civil Code was enacted on May 28, 2020 and will become effective on January 1, 2021 as the first civil code in the Communist China. Half a century of codification effort finally resulted in this much anticipated code. It utilized state-of-the-art codification techniques and presents...

This chapter asks whether there is still any such thing as punishment in private law any more. In doing so, it examines the meaning(s) and purposes of the idea of punishment; and the history, meaning and purposes of private law. It concludes that punishment, properly understood as a judicial act...

Amongst the social sciences, it is economics that has made the most promising advances for law. There are several reasons for this: it has a well-developed theoretical framework (microeconomics); it provides currently the most advanced application of the rational choice model, which is one of...

This article explores the different meanings of the right to housing in Europe in public and private relations with housing providers. In light of the fundamental right to housing’s meaning in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, we...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed humankind to a global health crisis unprecedented in its scope and impact. The pandemic struggle, however, is not limited to our biological survival; it extends to preserving our cultural and growth achievements by avoiding an economic...

Australian mediation practice is thriving. Effective forms of mediation are practised in court-connected schemes, in the public sector, in the community justice sector and in the private business sector. Indeed, no industry is excluded from the application of mediation. In contrast,...

This piece examines the meaning of vindication in private law. In contrast to some other approaches, it suggests that there is no single, institutional conception in the law of what it means to vindicate rights. Rather, it maintains that the idea is a mixed one - both in the sense that it...

In this essay, we discuss empirical research on the economic effects of the civil justice system. We discuss research on the effects of three substantive bodies of law- contracts, torts, and property- and research on the effects of the litigation process. We begin with a review of studies of...

As recent work suggests, a central concern in contemporary private law theory is the justification of private law. Private law, as all exercises of state coercion do, “calls for a justification.” Part of what private law theory ought to do, from this perspective, is to provide reasons in...

A new public-private law paradigm is developing with respect to the relationship of the state to private contracts. The paradigm melds private law concepts like unconscionability, good faith, and fair dealing with the public human rights principles of dignity and vulnerability. I trace this...

In proceedings in front of an arbitrary tribunal, at international such as also, at the national level, the question always arises as to the applicable substantive law. For the purpose of determining the applicable substantive law, the Arbitration largely recognized the principle of party...

With proponents of deregulation ascendant, both domestically and around the world, private regulation appears to be an attractive solution to a seemingly intractable problem-assuming it is or can be effective. This Article adds an important corrective to standard accounts of private legal...