1. The thesis evolved from a course at the Academy of European Law, Florence in July 1996; it was subsequently presented in a workshop on ‘Private Governance, Democratic Constitutionalism and Supranationalism’ at the European University Institute in May 1997. A first version was published in (1997) 3 European Law J 378. Its present elaboration thus owes much to many. Special mention should be made of Andreas Furrer, Oliver Gerstenberg, Michelle Everson, Christoph Schmid and Wolf Sauter. Nevertheless, this renewed effort represents work in progress and the usual disclaimer applies.

2. Reimann, M ‘American Private Law and European Legal Unification - Can the United States be a Model?’ (1996) 3 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 217–234 at 219 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cfCollins, H ‘European Private Law and the Cultural Identity of States’, (1995) 3 European Review of Private Law 353–365 at 354.Google Scholar

3. For a brief summary and an extensive bibliography of the relevant EC legislation and ECJ case law see Kilian, W Europäisches Wirtschaftsrecht (Munich: Beck, 1996) pp 317–324 Google Scholar. For a less topical but still useful overview, see Hondius, E ‘Towards a European Civil Code: General Introduction’ in Hartkamp, A T S et al (eds) Towards a European Civil Code (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1994) pp 1–18 Google Scholar and P-C Müller-Graff ‘Private Law Unification by Means other than of Unification’ ibid, pp 19–36. Among the more recent EC initiatives see the proposal of the European Parliament and Council for a directive on the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (OJ C 307/1996, 8), with an editorial comment on a private law issue in (1997) 34 CMLR 207–212; and the Greenbook on consumer guarantees, COM (93) 509 final of 15 November 1993.

4. A telling example is provided by the ECJ's reluctance to invoke the four freedoms of European primary law as a yardstick against which rules and principles of private law are to be measured and justified. For recent accounts of this especially in Germany intense debate cf Steindorff, E EG-Vertrag und Privatrecht (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1996) pp 277–202 Google Scholar; P von Wilmowsky ‘EG-Freiheiten und Vertragsrecht’ (1996) 51 Juristen Zeitung 590–596; N Reich ‘A European Constitution for Citizens: Reflections on the Rethinking of Union and Community Law’ (1997) 3 European Law J 131–164.

5. See above n 3.

6. In Germany, consumer protection measures through special legislation have been regarded as threatening the systematic unity and coherence of private law and, probably to the surprise of common law lawyers, have been criticised as a legislative usurpation of law-making powers; for a historical account of the German debate on ‘Sondergestzgebungs’ cf Joerges, C ‘The Science of Private Law and the Nation State’ (EUI Working Paper, Law No 9814) pp 44–49 Google Scholar with references 6(German version ‘Die Wissenschaft vom Privatrecht und der Nationalstaat’ in Simon, D (ed) Rechtswissenschaft in der Bonner Republik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1994) pp 311–363 at 345–351)Google Scholar.

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8. For more comprehensive analyses cf C Joerges ‘Economic Law, the Nation-State and the Maastricht Treaty’ in R Dehousse (ed) Europe after Maastricht: an Ever Closer Union? (Munich: Beck, 1994) pp 29–62; C Joerges ‘The Market without a State? States without Markets? Two Essays on the Law of the European Economy’ EUI Working Paper Law 1/96, Florence 1996 (also accessible via http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/1997-019a.htmand020a.htm).

9. E-J Mestmäcker ‘Politische und normativ-funktionale Legitimation der Europäischen Gemeinschaften’ in Mestmäcker, E-J Recht und ökonomisches Gesetz (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1972) pp 82–99 Google Scholar; for updated versions of this argument cf E-J Mestmäcker ‘Zur Wirschaftverfassung der Europäischen Union’ in Haase, R H et al (eds Ordnung und Freiheit. Festschrift für Hans Willgerodt tum 70. Geburtstag (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1996) 263–292 Google Scholar; E-J Mestmäcker ‘On the Legitimacy of European Law’ (1994) 58 Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 615–635; for a recent restatement in terms of economic theory cf Mayer, K and Scheinpflug, J Privatrechtsgesellschaft und die Europäische Union (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1996)Google Scholar.

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11. Lochner v New York 198 US 45 (1905).

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13. Cf again Mestmäcker ‘On the Legitimacy of European Law’ (above n 9) and, in a historical perspective, Lepsius, O Verwaltungsrecht unter dem Common Law (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1997) p 51ffGoogle Scholar.

14. Cf the analyses in Joerges ‘The Market without a State’ (above n 8).

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20. Cf as an early example from the work of M J Bonell ‘Das autonome Recht des Welthandels - rechtsdogmatische und rechtspolitische Aspekte’ (1978) 42 Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 485–506 and, more recently, M J Bonell ‘The Unidroit Principles - A modem approach to contract law’ in Weyers, H-L (ed) Europäisches Vertragsrecht (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1997) pp 9–21 Google Scholar.

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23. Cf C Joerges ‘Economic Law…’ (above n 8 at 32–35) (pointing to the conceptual bases of legal regulation); Everson, M Laws in Conflict. A Rationally Integrated European Insurance Market? (PhD Thesis, EUI Florence 1993)Google Scholar especially ch 5 (emphasising the socio-economic embeddedness and functions of regulatory traditions); K Dyson ‘Cultural Issues and the Single European Market: Barriers to Trade and Shifting Attitudes’ (1993) 64 Political Quarterly 84–97.

24. Collins, C ‘European Private Law and the Cultural Identity of States’ (1995) 3 European Review of Private Law 353–365 Google Scholar; cf the analysis in Gerstenberg, O ‘Law's Polyarchy: A Comment on Cohen and Sabel’ (1997) 3 European Law J 343 at 348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. Above n 16 at 47.

26. Above n 15 at 60.

27. Cf C Joerges and J Neyer ‘From Intergovernmental Bargaining to Deliberative Political Processes: The Constitutionalisation of Comitology’ (1997) 3 European Law J 273–299. More familiar examples include the interpretation of international conventions, the ECJ's quest for ‘richtlinienkonfome Auslegung’, the follow-up of its jurisprudence on state liability, cf W Van Gerven ‘Bridging the Unbridgeable: Community and National Tort Laws after Frankovich and Brasserie’ in Micklitz, H-W and Reich, N (eds) Public Interest Litigation before European Courts (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1997) 57–94 Google Scholar (also in (1996) 45 ICLQ 507).

28. See the exhaustive, yet compelling, reconstruction of German formalism by Ewald, W ‘Comparative Jurisprudence (I): “What was it like to Try a Rat ?”’ (1995) 143 v Pennsylvania LR 1889–2249 at 2045ff and 2119–2121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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30. Pronuptia de Paris GmbH v Irmgard Schillgalis Case 161/84 [1986] ECR 353.

31. Cf the discussion in A Dnes ‘The Economic Analysis of Franchising and its Regulation,’ in Joerges, C (ed) Franchising and the Law: Theoretical and Comparative Approaches in Europe and the United States (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1991) 133–142 Google Scholar.

32. Walt Wilhelm et al v Bundeskartellamt Case 14/68 [1969] ECR 1.

33. Even the recent ‘Green Paper on vertical restraints in EU competition policy’ (COM (96) 721, http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg04entente/en/96712/en.htm) does not even mention contract law but discusses only co-operative arrangements within competition policy (ch III, parts IV, V). As a recent example out of the ECJ's rich jurisprudence, cf VAG Händlerbeirat v SYD-Consult Case C-41/96 judgment of 5 June 1997; here the court repeated that group exemption regulations do not prescribe specific contractual arrangements (at para 16), although it goes without saying that the freedom of parallel imports erodes the bargained out equilibrium within the dealer contracts under consideration.

34. DeCockborne, J-E ‘Franchising and European Community Competition Law’ in Joerges, C (ed) Franchising and the Law (above n 31) at 312.Google Scholar

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36. Cf for an institutional economics perspective, Gerken, L ‘Institutional Competition: An Orientative Framework’ in Gerken, L (ed) Competition Among Institutions (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995) pp 1–34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and for a political science analysis, Héritier, A, Mingers, S, Knill, H C and Becka, M Die Veränderung von Staatlichkeit in Europa (Opladen: Leske and Budrich, 1994) pp 1–5, 12–19, 386–395CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A Héritier ‘The Accomodation of Diversity in European Policy-making and its Outcomes: Regulatory Policy as a Patchwork’ (1996) 3 Journal of European Public Policy 149–167.

37. Cf the deliberations in Joerges, C ‘Contract and Status…’ in Joerges, C (ed) Franchising and the Law (above n 31) esp at 64–66.Google Scholar

38. Moravcsik, Cf A ‘Preferences and Power in the European Community: a Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach’ (1993) 31 JCMS 473–524 Google Scholar; A Moravcsik ‘Why the European Community Strengthens the State. Domestic Politics and International Cooperation’ Harvard University, Center for European Studies, Working Paper 1994, No 52.

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40. There has been a rapid growth in the entity of literature on this subject; important contributions include F W Scharf ‘Community and Autonomy: Multilevel Policy-Making in the European Union’ (1994) 1 Journal of European Public Policy 219–242; M Jachtenfuchs ‘Theoretical Perspectives on European Governance’ (1995) 1 European Law J 115–133; M Jachtenfuchs and B Kohler-Koch ‘Regieren im dynamischen Mehrebenensystem’, in Jachtenfuchs, M and Kohler-Koch, B (eds) Europäische Integration (Opladen: Leske and Budrich, 1996) pp 15–44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G Marks, L Hooghe and K Blank ‘European Integration since the 1980s: State-centric versus Multi-level Governance’ (1996) 34 JCMS, 343–378.

41. For a comprehensive recent analysis of European social regulation cf Eichener, V, Entscheidungsprozesse in der regulativen Politik der Europäischen Union (Habilitationsschrift) (University of Bochum, 1997)Google Scholar.

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43. It is again important to note that the EC acts as a promoter of developments that have broad bases and precursors in national systems; cf G Teubner‘ The “State” of Private Networks: The Emerging Legal Regime of Polycorporatism in Germany’ (1993) 2 Brigham Young University LR 553–575; J Black ‘Constitutionalising Self-Regulation’ (1996) 59 MLR 24–55.

44. This reading of supranationalism I have advocated in various contexts; for private law cf C Joerges and G Brüggemeier ‘Europäisierung des Vertrags- und Haftungsrechts’ in Müller-Graff, P-C (ed) Gemeinsames Privatrecht in der Europäischen Gemeinschft (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1993) pp 233ff at 278–286 Google Scholar; for social regulation cf Joerges, C ‘Scientific Expertise in Social Regulation and the European Court of Justice: Legal Frameworks for Denationalised Governance Structures’ in Joerges, C, Ladeur, K-H and Vos, E (eds) Integrating Scientific Expertise into Legal Decision-Making (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1997) pp 295–323, at 300–319Google Scholar.

45. For a recent elaboration cf Gerstenberg, O Bürgerrechte und deliberative Demokratie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1997)Google Scholar; important American references include F Michelman ‘Law's Republic’ (1988) 97 Yale Law J 1493; C Sunstein ‘Legal Interferences with Private Preferences’ (1986) 53 v Chicago LR 1129–1147; Sunstein, C After the Rights Revolution (Harvard UP, 1990)Google Scholar; a German author may mention the vicinity to the work of Jürgen Habermas; cf F Michelrnan's review of J Habermas Between Facts and Norms (1996) in (1996) Journal of Philosophy 307 at 310. For contributions dealing more specifically with issues of regulation, cf M Seidenfeld ‘A Civic Republican Justification of the Bureaucratic State’ (1992) 105 Harvard LR 1511–1576; R Pildes and C Sunstein ‘Reinventing the Regulatory State’ (1995) 62 v Chicago LR 1–129.

46. Cf Weiler, J H H ‘Fin-de-Siècle Europe’ in Dehousse, R (ed) Europe After Maastricht. An Ever Closer Union? (Munich: Beck, 1994) pp 203–216 Google Scholar.

47. Scharpf, Cf F W ‘Democratic Policy in Europe’ (1996) 2 European Law J 136–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48. Cf references in n 7 above; as an interesting German legal precursor, cf Ipsen, H P Europäisches Gemeinschaftsrecht (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1972) pp 176ffGoogle Scholar (for further references and a short analysis cf C Joerges ‘Economic Law…’ (above n 8) at 38–41); Majone has acknowledged this Geistesverwandtschaft in ‘The European Community. An “Independent Fourth Branch of Government”?’ in Brüggemeier, G (ed) Verfassungen für ein ziviles Europa (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1993) pp 23–44 Google Scholar.

49. But see V Eichener (above n 41) chs 5 and 6.

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51. Cohen, J and Sabel, C L ‘Directly-Deliberative Polyarchy’ (1997) 3 European Law J 313–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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53. Cf Gerstenberg, O ‘Private Ordering, Public Intervention and Social Pluralism’ in Joerges, C and Gerstenberg, O (eds) Private Governance, Democratic Constitutionalism and Supranationalism (Luxembourg: European Commission, 1998) (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

54. Cf the ‘Concluding Remarks’ below p 165.

55. That discipline remains perplexed with many issues which Community law has long settled: (1) the protection of basic rights requires exceptional private international law provisions whereas primary and secondary Community law promote transnational principles of justice as a matter of course; (2) legal systems of private law are recognised as being equivalent as a matter of principle; the application of mandatory foreign rules, however, remains ‘one-sided’ under private international law even where Community law requires mutual recognition; (3) private international law is not in a position to organise transnational continuous co-operation and refuses, at least in the dominating continental schools of thought, to assign legal validity to ‘interests’ societies pursue at an international level, whereas the establishment of transnational regulatory frameworks and the constant accommodation of regulatory concerns and economic interests is a dominant feature and daily business of Community law and its implementation.

56. Cf recently for this combination Zimmermann, R ‘Savigny's Legacy. Legal History, Comparative Law and the Emergence of a European Legal Science’ (1996) 112 LQR 576.Google Scholar

57. Cf C Joerges ‘Economic Law…’ (above n 8) at 30f, 60f. Closer analysis of most regulatory traditions will reveal such dependencies; for the inevitability of historical compromise and its pivotal role in shaping institutional, regulatory structures, cf Everson, M on insurance regulation, ‘The German Federal Supervisory Authority for Insurance’ in Majone, G (ed) Regulating Europe (London: Routledge, 1996) pp 202–228 Google Scholar.

58. Sauter, Cf W ‘The Evolution of Universal Service Obligations in the Liberalization of the European Telecommunications Sector’ (1996) 7 Utilities LR 75–88.Google Scholar

59. Cf references in n 22.

60. For an earlier analysis of this observation in the field of private law cf Joerges, C Verbraucherschutz als Rechtsproblem (Heidelberg: Recht und Wirtschaft, 1981) pp 111 Google Scholar ff, Joerges, C ‘Quality Regulation in Consumer Goods Markets: Theoretical Problems and Practical Examples’ in Daintith, T and Teubner, G (eds) Contract and Organisation (Berlin: deGruyter, 1986) pp 142–163 Google Scholar.

61. Above n 52.

62. Cf Kübler, F ‘Ideologieverdacht und universale Diskursverpflichtung’ in Schmidt, E and Weyers, H-L (eds) Liber Amicorum Josef Esser (Heidelberg: C F Muller, 1995) pp 91–108 at 105Google Scholar.

63. Tinbergen, J International Econonomic Integration (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 2nd edn, 1965)Google Scholar. For a recent quasi authoritative definition cf Pelkmans, J European Integration. Methods and Economic Analysis (Harlow: Longman, 1997) p 6 Google Scholar.

64. Reich, N Europäisches Verbraucherschutzrecht (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 3rd edn, 1996) pp 48ffGoogle Scholar.

65. Scharpf, F ‘Negative and Positive Integration in the Political Economy of European Welfare States’ in Marks, G, Scharpf, F, Schmitter, P and Streeck, W (eds) Governance in the European Union (London: Sage, 1996) pp 15–39 Google Scholar.

66. Cf Furrer, A Die Sperrwirkung des Gemeinschaftsrechts auf die nationlen Rechtsordnungen (Baden-Baden: Nornos, 1994) pp 161 ffGoogle Scholar; M Poiares Maduro ‘Reforming the Market or the State? Article 30 and the European Constitution: Economic Freedom and Political Rights’ (1997) 3 European Law J 55–82.

67. Joerges and Brüggerneier (above n 44).

68. ‘The Europeanisation of Private Law as a Rationalisation Process and as a Contest of Legal Disciplines - an Analysis of the Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts’ (1995) 3 European Review of Private Law 175–192 (Kant's ‘Streit der Fakultäten’ dates from 1798).Google Scholar