Governance and the transformation of European private law

Abstract

The Europeanization of European Private Law (EPL) is an ongoing process that has gained momentum with the communautarization of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters with the Amsterdam Treaty. Attention needs to be given to the governance structure of EPL. Europeanization of private law can be achieved through a new approach involving innovative modes of governance in EPL. This article sets out to argue that the further Europeanization of EPL requires a multi-level mode of governance, confirming the traditional supra-national Community Method mode of governance in EPL with the introduction of intra-governmental innovative methods in EPL such as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and soft-law. The innovative modes, together with the traditional mode of governance, can take forward the development of EPL so that it can better serve the needs of the European legal community into the future.