European private law

Il commento muove dalla decisione del Collegio di Coordinamento A.B.F. sulla sorte di un contratto di fideiussione omnibus che contempla le clausole dello schema contrattuale uniforme predisposto dall’A.B.I., qualificate come anticoncorrenziali dal provvedimento della Banca d’Italia n. 55/2005. L’analisi si concentra esclusivamente sulla nullità della fideiussione stabilita dalla decisione. In questo senso, tale nullità viene fatta discendere dall’art. 2 l. 287/1990, il cui divieto abbraccia non solo le intese, ma anche i contratti attuativi, nella misura in cui ne realizzino il risultato. Con riferimento al caso in esame, la nullità investe, quindi, la fideiussione, nella parte in cui concretizza l’intento uniformatore contemplato dallo schema contrattuale A.B.I. Si tratta, pertanto, di nullità parziale, e non già di nullità «necessariamente parziale», poiché non risulta applicabile, come invece sostiene il Collegio in commento, la disciplina della nullità di protezione.

The book strives to provide a historical, comparative, and multidisciplinary introduction to the study of private law. Against the backdrop of the predominant position enjoyed by legal positivism, private law is thus understood as a complex social phenomenon, which intercats with human culture as a whole. The national jurisdictions belonging to the Western legal tradition are mainly depicted, as well as the supranational trends that point towards a global law. Particularly, the rise of a European law is accounted for not only within the framework of the Union's legislature, but also through the development of a rediscovered ius commune that emerges from comparative studies conducted by scholars and from the creative attitude of the courts. A special attention is paid to the sources of uniform law and to the development of soft law as a means of integration of legal systems. Traditional doctrines of juridical facts and duties are finally reinterpreted as devices designed to construct a jurisprudence that extends beyond national borders.

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 on passenger rights in cases of denied boarding and of cancellation or delay of flights includes provisions on the air carrier ’ s duty to inform passengers of their rights. In this regard, the Regulation interacts with Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices. Failure of the carrier to provide complete, clear and accurate information to passengers could be an infringement of both legislative instruments, and entail parallel or subsequent administrative enforcement proceedings at both national and cross-border level. This article analyses the carrier ’ s duty to inform, pursuant to the provisions of these instruments. Special emphasis is laid on certain parameters of administrative enforcement, especially the power to investigate infringements as well as the duplication of proceedings and penalties, taking into account aspects of fundamental human rights.

We often think about justice and social change in terms of refinement and better implementation of legal or economic theories and categories. Justice and change are often understood as more accountability and participation, as resistance to free movement/ autonomy considerations and an emphasis on social ones, as resistance to the ‘the market’, as a general protection of the weaker party, or a better theory or alignment of the entire legal system with general constitutional values and principles. Change is expected to follow from an overtly political discourse that should free us from the shackles of legal language and enable the concerns of the people to be voiced.
However, "Justice" cannot be understood in terms of any theory or concept. The word justice only makes sense because of the current unjust reality. Justice should be understood dynamically, as constant social transformation. Legal thinking misses the hierarchical structure of society and when considering justice too often assumes an abstract category or theory that can bring about “justice”.
For example, it is generally assumed in legal consciousness that the identity of the weaker party can be generalised and predetermined. Beside its reliance on constitutionalism and on conceptual understanding of the legal structure, the conceptualism of contemporary legal thought, this was one of the main weaknesses of the European Social Justice Manifestos. A legal system favoring an abstract “weaker party” is bound to struggle with concerns of justice. 
We cannot rely on any theory or worldview when thinking about justice. Such thinking about "justice" often contributes to the reproduction of existing hierarchies - to the reproduction of the status quo, particularly when (hierarchical) reality is interpreted according to existing ideology. Justice means a dynamic change of the currently unjust hierarchical reality that needs to be constantly constructed and reconstructed. The aim of social transformation cannot be a final solution, a perfect social order, or ubiquitous affirmations of ‘social’ considerations, nor a stable state of justice, but rather a constant pursuit of “justice”.

This essay is both a review of the excellent book “Nudge and the Law. A European Perspective”, edited by Alberto Alemanno and Anne-Lise Sibony, and an assessment of the major themes and challenges that the behavioural analysis of law will and should face in the immediate future.

The book makes important and novel contributions in a range of topics, both on a theoretical and a substantial level. Regarding theoretical issues, four themes stand out: First, it highlights the differences between the EU and the US nudging environments. Second, it questions the reliance on expertise in rulemaking. Third, it unveils behavioural trade-offs that have too long gone unnoticed in behavioural law and economics. And fourth, it discusses the requirement of the transparency of nudges and the related concept of autonomy. Furthermore, the different authors discuss the impact of behavioural regulation on a number of substantial fields of law: health and lifestyle regulation, privacy law, and the disclosure paradigm in private law.

This paper aims to take some of the book’s insights one step further in order to point at crucial challenges – and opportunities – for the future of the behavioural analysis of law. In the last years, the movement has gained tremendously in breadth and depth. It is now time to make it scientifically even more rigorous, e.g. by openly embracing empirical uncertainty and by moving beyond the neo-classical/behavioural dichotomy. Simultaneously, the field ought to discursively readjust its normative compass. Finally and perhaps most strikingly, however, the power of big data holds the promise of taking behavioural interventions to an entirely new level. If these challenges can be overcome, this paper argues, the intersection between law and behavioural sciences will remain one of the most fruitful approaches to legal analysis in Europe and beyond.

Portuguese report to the Common Core of European Private Law volume on "immoral contracts". Report includes analysis of case scenarios on a range of issues, from sex work to surrogacy, from freedom to marry to inheritance issues, from suretyships to usury.

The article examines the use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the so-called “horizontal” cases. For this purpose it investigates three questions: first, the formal status of the Charter in horizontal situations; secondly, the problems which arise when open-textured provisions guaranteeing fundamental rights are applied horizontally; and thirdly, the different ways in which restrictions could be imposed on the horizontal use of the Charter. It argues that the question of the appropriate scope of horizontal application of the Charter goes beyond the technical subtleties of distinguishing between the Charter and the “general principles” of fundamental rights, or between their “direct” and “indirect” effect. Starting from the assumption that constitutionalisation of contract law should have limits, the article argues for a substantive doctrine to regulate the reach of the Charter in horizontal cases. The article considers the possibility of reconciling a traditional private law perspective, focused on protection of contractual freedom and efficiency, with the concern for ensuring efficacy of fundamental rights in situations where substantive freedom and equality are in need of protection.

Sumario: I. Dos conceptos de «documento» en el derecho privado europeo de la moderna sociedad de la información.-II. El documento electrónico en el llamado Reglamento eIDAS (Reglamento (UE) n.º 910/2014): el problema de los límites de la forma electrónica como escritura.-III. La relevancia sustancial y probatoria de los documentos sin firma en el derecho italiano vigente.-IV. (sigue) Crítica.-V. Escritos y reproducciones mecánicas.-VI. La valoración ex art. 116 del Codice di procedura civile de los documentos sin firma.-VII. El régimen de los documentos informáticos sin firma y de las reproducciones informáticas.-VIII. Los nuevos documentos en derecho de consumo.-IX. El impacto de los nuevos documentos europeos en el Derecho italiano.-X. Conclusiones. Resumen: A la luz de las nuevas escrituras informáticas de la sociedad de la información y a partir de los dos conceptos diferentes de escritura que se encuentran en la Ley de Interpretación de 1978 del Reino Unido y en el art. 1.11 de los Principios Unidroit, así como de la contraposición del derecho italiano entre «scritture» (escritos) y «riproduzioni meccaniche» (reproducciones mecánicas), el trabajo investiga si la representación o reproducción de palabras en forma visible es necesaria para cumplir con los requisitos del derecho privado europeo en cuanto a la forma y la prueba por escrito, o si es suficiente cualquier forma de comunicación que preserve la documentación de la información contenida y sea reproducible en forma tangible. Argumentando la preferencia por la segunda solución, se establece una distinción entre, por un lado, «documentos declarativos» (es decir, los que constituyen el medio para efectuar declaraciones por escrito) y, por el otro, «documento meramente representativos» (que en cambio no constituyen el medio para efectuar dichas declaraciones), teniendo en cuenta varias normativas vigentes a distinto nivel en el panorama del derecho europeo (y, en particular, ciertas normas del Codice civile, del BGB y del ABGB, del Código Civil español, del Código Civil griego y de la Law of Property inglés, por un lado, y el art. 1, 4.º apartado, lett. a

On March 13, 2013 the comission of the European Union has issued its draft for a revision of the air passengers rights regulation (EC) 261/2004. This draft formally adopts a number of clarifications and adjustments which had been developed by rulings of the court of the European Union on basis of the regulation in force. This refers first and foremost to compensation for substantially delayed connecting flights. The article disusses the suggested amendments and weighs them critically, especially in light of the significant reduction of the level of consumer protection for passengers as established today by court rulings on various levels.

Am 13.3.2013 hat die EU Kommission ihren Entwurf zur Überarbeitung der Fluggastrechte-Verordnung vorgelegt. Dieser greift formell eine Reihe von Präzisierungen und Ergänzungen auf, die die Rechtsprechung auf Basis der geltenden Verordnungsfassung entwickelt hat. Dies betrifft vorallem Ausgleichszahlungen bei großer Verspätung sowie Konstellationen mit Anschlussflügen. Der Beitrag setzt sich mit den geplanten Änderungen auseinander und bewertet sie kritisch, insbesondere in Hinblick auf die erhebliche Reduzierung des Schutzniveaus der Reisenden, wie es sich in der Rechtsprechung heute fest etabliert hat.

This paper assesses the issue of alea in the Italian juridical system through the lens of case law on derivative contracts. After having shed light on the role of derivatives in the current economic system and on the fundamental legal issues that they raise, case law concerning their validity is critically assessed. Considerations on the regulation of the market order are drawn from the analysis of the relationship between the notions of causa and alea. Finally, the legal consequences affecting the settlement of a contract declared immeritevole are analyzed.

San Marino trust law is embedded in a consolidated civil law tradition stretching back to the ius commune system of fiduciary instruments, thereby making it possible to trace, to a large extent, an itinerary related to common law trusts, and to challenge unwarranted allegations (now, fortunately, fading away) that trusts cannot be transplanted into civil law countries. San Marino has not confined itself to imitating other offshore legislation, but has drawn up a unique trust system reconciling the typical features of international models - thus embarking on the race to attract the trust business within its borders - with the peculiarities of its own system of sources. Hovering between the principles of confidence and patrimonial separation, the international models and ius commune, San Marino trust law proves to be the perfect combination of innovation and tradition, and longs to become a benchmark for the regulation of trusts established in civil law jurisdictions.

This is a brief case note on the Munich County Court's Judgment of 1 March 2018 (Case 12 O 730) which held that the Amazon Dash Button device violates EU consumer law on several counts. The case note analyzes the Court's line of argument and argues that EU consumer law in its existing form is not sufficiently technically neutral and not ready for display-less devices such as the Amazon Dash Button and voice-activated digital assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

For decades, consumer law has been the stepchild of the legal discipline, neither public nor private law, not classic but post-modern, not 'legal enough', 'too political', in short, a discipline at the margins, suffering from the haut gout and striving to change society through law for the 'better'. Just like Atreyu, Frodo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, the Ghostbusters, Naruto Uzumaki, Dreamworks' dragon trainer, and many others, consumer law is the underdog carrying the burden of saving the day. Times are changing. We are perhaps reaching the point of the story where the world comes to understand the real value of consumer law in a society that is dominated and dependent on private consumption. Publishing houses and ever more numerous researchers from public and private law perspectives, working on national, European and international law are getting into what is no longer a new legal field. Now the time is ripe for a whole Handbook on Consumer Law Research which brings methodology to the fore. This first chapter pursues three aims, firstly to embed consumer law research into the overall development of legal research since the rise of consumer law in the 1960s, secondly to explain our choice to focus on the behavioural turn in consumer law and present the range of contributions in this volume that engage with the upcoming strand of research, thirdly to explore how the recent attention to behavioural insights can be combined with a pre-existing body of doctrinal research and social legal research in consumer law and outline avenues for further research.

Price personalisation raises four policy concerns: building trust, fostering competitiveness, increasing access, and avoiding exploitation. The Modernisation Directive introduces an information requirement about personalised prices. The research explains how this information requirement can and shall be used to make price personalisation pro-competitive and pro-consumers. The analysis can be divided into two main parts. First, disclosing the impersonal price is the simple and effective way to reap the benefits of price personalisation while counteracting its negative effects. Second, the legal grounds for the right to know also the impersonal price in EU law are identified. After having explained that consumers have a right to be offered a personalised price, it is shown that the principles of transparency and effectiveness in EU consumer law, together with the right granted by Article 22(3) GDPR, imply that consumers have the right to know also the impersonal price. The right to know also the impersonal price is a critical tile for solving the puzzle represented by the best governance of digital markets in the European Union.

This paper covers developments in the area of private law and private international law of the year 2017, as far as EU law and and EU-determined Austrian law is concerned, both on the level of legislation and jurisprudence.
It was written for a yearbook series (Jahrbuch Europarecht) which unfortunately happened to be discontinued that very year, but is scheduled to be relaunched in 2021.

Il libro si propone di esaminare l’utilità della distinzione
tra ordine pubblico interno e internazionale, nonché le modalità
operative di questa clausola generale, da intendere
non piú soltanto come limite alla libertà negoziale
o alla recepibilità di leggi e atti stranieri, a garanzia dell’identità
culturale nazionale, ma anche come insieme dei princípi
identificativi con funzione promozionale. In questa prospettiva
l’ordine pubblico è non piú soltanto chiamato a tutelare
l’interesse generale della società, bensí a esprimere e garantire
anche i diritti, i doveri e le libertà degli individui. Di là
da formali distinzioni, l’ordine pubblico è un concetto unitario
non per identità di soluzioni, ma per identità assiologica
dei criteri di giudizio. Sono le circostanze del caso concreto
e i valori normativi in gioco che determinano le modalità
con le quali tali valori vanno coniugati per raggiungere, di volta
in volta, la soluzione più ragionevole.

It is clear that the Lutheran Reformation greatly contributed to changes in theological and legal ideas – but what was the extent of its impact on the field of contract law? Historians have extensively studied the contract doctrines developed by Roman Catholic theologians and canonists; however, they have largely neglected Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Johann Aepinus, Martin Chemnitz, Friedrich Balduin and many other reformers. This book focuses on those neglected voices of the Reformation, exploring their role in the history of contract law. These men mapped out general principles to counter commercial fraud and dictated norms to regulate standard economic transactions. The most learned jurists, such as Matthias Coler, Peter Height, Benedict Carpzov, and Samuel Stryk, among others, studied these theological teachings and implemented them in legal tenets. Theologians and jurists thus cooperated in resolving contract law problems, especially those concerning interest and usury.

Il lavoro tenta di trasmettere alla comunità scientifica l’idea che l’impostazione attuale del private enforcement, volta ad attuare il riconoscimento a chiunque del danno antitrust mediante la ‘responsabilizzazione verso chiunque degli autori dell’illecito’, ha prodotto lo scardinamento della responsabilità civile. Questa è stata resa un alienum rispetto alla tradizione giuridica dell’Europa continentale, perché non mira alla tutela delle vittime, bensì alla punizione dell’autore dell’offesa. Un esito che contrasta anche con la complementarità che informa l’azione pubblica e l’azione privata nel diritto antitrust. Di conseguenza, l’indagine mette al centro la tutela del singolo, vittima dell’offesa. Muovendo, quindi, dal carattere residuale della responsabilità aquiliana, viene sperimentato l’approccio in chiave contrattuale alle patologie generate dall’intesa e dall’abuso di posizione dominante. Quest’ottica sembra salvaguardare, non solo le categorie della tutela civile, ma anche la complementarità tra il private enforcement e il public enforcement, secondo il canone del diritto moderno.

***

The work tries to convey to the scientific community the idea that the current setting of antitrust private enforcement has deranged civil liability, as recognized by the general principles common to the laws of the Member States. Indeed, the idea to recognize ‘compensation for antitrust damages to anyone’ through the ‘liability towards anyone of the infringers’ has made that liability an alienum with respect to the legal tradition of continental Europe, because it does not aim to protect the victims, but rather to punish the offender. An outcome that also contrasts with the complementarity that informs public and private actions in antitrust law. Thus, the investigation focuses on the protection of the individual, victim of the offense. Moving from the residual character of non-contractual responsibility, the work tests the contractual approach to the pathologies generated by both unlawful agreements and the abuse of a dominant position. This view seems to safeguard, not only the categories of civil law, but also the complementarity between private enforcement and public enforcement, according to the canon of modern law.

W polskiej doktrynie prawa autorskiego przez wiele lat dość powszechnie (choć niejednomyślnie) przyjmowano, iż dla legalności korzystania z rozpowszechnionego utworu w ramach dozwolonego użytku prywatnego nie ma znaczenia legalność kopii źródłowej. Przekonanie to zweryfikowane zostało w ubiegłym roku przez Trybunał Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej w wyroku w sprawie C-435/12 ACI Adam BV i in. p-ko Stichting de Thuiskopie i in. Zgodnie z tym orzeczeniem prawo Unii Europejskiej stoi (…) na przeszkodzie obowiązywaniu uregulowania krajowego (…), które nie rozróżnia sytuacji, w której źródło służące za podstawę sporządzenia kopii na użytek prywatny jest legalne, od sytuacji, w której źródło to jest nielegalne.
W związku z obowiązującą państwa członkowskie Unii Europejskiej dyrektywą prounijnej wykładni prawa krajowego wydaje się, że obecne w dyskursie prawnoautorskim przekonanie o „legalności ściągania” uznać należy za zdezaktualizowane. Co więcej, wątpliwości można mieć również co do skutków korzystania z utworów za pomocą dotychczas uznawanych za całkowicie „bezpieczne” metod jak np. streaming.
Orzeczenie to stanowi wyzwanie dla ustawodawcy w kontekście dwóch kontrowersyjnych regulacji polskiego prawa autorskiego, tj. art. 79 ust. 1 pkt 3) lit. b) przewidującego zryczałtowane odszkodowanie stanowiące dwukrotność stosownego wynagrodzenia w przypadku niezawinionego naruszenia autorskich praw majątkowych oraz uznanego w ostatnich dniach przez TK za zgodny z Konstytucją art. 115 ust. 3 pr. aut. przewidującego odpowiedzialność karną za „naruszenie praw autorskich w inny sposób, w celu osiągnięcia korzyści majątkowej”. Te dwie regulacje w powiązaniu z nowym, węższym rozumieniem art. 23 pr. aut. mogą całkowicie zburzyć spokój użytkowników Internetu.
Paradoksalnie, wyrok wydaje się jednak niekorzystny nie tylko dla użytkowników, ale również dla uprawnionych, którzy zostali pozbawieni prawa do „godziwej rekompensaty” za korzystanie w ramach dozwolonego użytku z nielegalnych kopii źródłowych ich utworów.
W referacie postaram się ocenić uzasadnienie wyroku w sprawie ACI Adam, przedstawić jego skutki dla sytuacji prawnej dwóch kategorii podmiotów: uprawnionych i użytkowników oraz sformułować postulaty de lege ferenda dotyczące niekomercyjnego korzystania z utworów w sferze prywatnej.

Private law theory plays a role (for better or worse) in the practice of law, whether that be in education or providing criticism, or contextualizing within a broader frame what private law does and why it does what it does. Yet some say that private law theory neglects history while others say that it does not fully capture history’s possibilities. In this paper, I  explore what it means to use history in theorising by exploring how analytical philosophy has engaged with history since the 1960s, suggesting three possible historical avenues of private law theory.

European Contract Law and the Digital Single Market, an edited collection consisting of carefully selected contributions by leading scholars, addresses the impact of digital technology on European Private Law in light of the latest legislative developments including the EU Regulation of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on free movement of such data, as well as the European Commission’s proposals of 9 December 2015 for a Directive on the supply of digital content, for a Directive on online and other distance sale of goods and for a Regulation on the cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market. The book analyses new and urgent issues in the field of contract, data protection, copyright and private international law: namely the EU approach to personal information as a tradeable commodity and as the object of a fundamental right of the individuals concerned, the protection of consumers’ and users’ rights in contracts for the supply of digital content and on online and other distance sales of goods, the cross-border portability of online content services, the new features of standard contracts in the digital market and the issues surrounding the emergence of the so called platform economy.

Written for both scholars and practitioners, this edited collection provides clear answers to the challenges posed by the digital revolution and acts as a solid basis for further developments of EU law.

Het concept Airbnb behoeft nog weinig toelichting. Particulieren verhuren hun eigen woning of appartement, deels of in geheel, en hanteren daarbij tarieven die hoteliers grijze haren bezorgen. Stadsbesturen, die verblijftaksen aan hun neus zien voorbijgaan, zijn " not amused ". Wereldsteden als New York en Berlijn hebben Airbnb verboden of minstens strak aan banden gelegd. Airbnb probeert intussen de meubels te redden en wil met 700 steden een akkoord bereiken over overnachtingstaks. Momenteel biedt de firma in België accomodaties aan te Brussel en Gent.  In Vlaanderen schept het decreet betreffende het toeristische logies van 5 februari 2016 (B.S. 8 maart 2016) intussen een kader waarbinnen diensten als AirBNB kunnen opereren. Vanaf 1 april 2017 zouden daarenboven nieuwe Vlaamse veiligheidsnormen ingaan voor (zelfs occasionele) aanbieders van commerciële overnachtingen. Het publiekrechtelijk aspect van het airbnb-fenomeen is echter niet het onderwerp van deze korte bijdrage; zoals de titel ervan trouwens aangeeft.

2. Privaatrechtelijke bezwaren: case-studie Amsterdam.
Ook verenigingen van mede-eigenaars (VME) zijn vaak niet blij met de verhuur van appartementen via Airbnb, uit angst voor waardevermindering van het gebouw of overlast door toeristen. Inmiddels zijn er in Amsterdam verschillende procedures gevoerd tussen VME's en eigenaars die hun appartement via Airbnb in gebruik gaven. Een groot aantal eigenaars heeft overlast van de commerciële exploitatie ondermeer bestaande uit (geluids)overlast, meer gebruik van gemeenschappelijke ruimten (waaronder de binnenplaats), meer zwerfvuil, toenemende gevoelens van onveiligheid (nu de sleutels van appartementen aan vreemden worden gegeven), en het moeilijk kunnen aanspreken van toeristen op hun (overlastgevende) gedrag.

In this article I argue  that a revival of the idea of divided property, which was central to medieval feudal law, could prove to be beneficial for today's law. It would allow us to combine several variants of property within Europe into a common concept.

Par deux arrêts récents, la Cour de justice des Communautés européennes s’est prononcée sur le statut des
agents commerciaux. Elle était en effet interrogée sur la notion d’agent commercial à propos du critère de
l’activité permanente (1re aff.) et sur les éléments constitutifs et les modalités d’évaluation de l’indemnité de fin
de contrat (2e aff.). Des arrêts importants, qui nous livrent des précisions intéressantes sur l’application de la
directive du 18 décembre 1986 relative aux agents commerciaux et transposée en droit français aux articles
L. 134-1 et suivants du Code de commerce.
CJCE, 16 mars 2006, aff. C-3/04, Poseidon Chartering BV c/ Marianne Zeeschip VOF e.a. ; CJCE, 23 mars 2006, aff. C-465/04,
2118 Honyvem Informazioni Commerciali Srl c/ Mariella De Zotti

This book investigates whether national courts could and should import innovative solutions from abroad in the adjudication of complex legal disputes. Special attention is paid to the concept of “legally relevant damage” and its importance in overcoming the deadlock created by the category of “pure economic loss” in the Portuguese and German tort law systems. These systems are essentially based on the concept of unlawfulness (“Rechtswidrigkeit”), which limits the compensation for pure economic loss to where a protective rule is infringed. These losses have nevertheless been compensated for through the extensive interpretation of rules and the appeal to near-contractual devices, which has been detrimental to legal certainty, the equality before the law, and subjects’ freedom of action. This book explains why courts can and should take a proactive role and apply DCFR-based solutions in order to compensate for every loss that is worthy of legal protection.