It seems to be undisputed today that the harmonization of private law in Europe cannot take place without taking fundamental rights into account. Yet many questions still exist as to how and to what extent EU and national private law can and should be influenced by fundamental rights enshrined...

The rise of public supervision over private relationships in many areas of private law has led to the development of what, in the author's view, could be called ‘European supervision private law'. This emerging body of law forms part of European regulatory private law and is made up of...

Although it seems to be undisputed today that the harmonisation of private law in the EU cannot take place without due regard for fundamental rights, many questions still exist as to how and to what extent European private law can and should be influenced by fundamental rights. This chapter aims...

During the last decade, the EU has adopted three major sector-specific directives in the area of retail financial services – the Payment Services Directive, the Consumer Credit Directive, and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. All three directives are based on the idea of 'full,'...

The interplay between financial regulation and civil liability in the legal order of the European Union provided the theme for the book entitled ‘Financial Regulation and Civil Liability in European Law’. This framing chapter presents the research design and major findings of this book...

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...

Financial services have become increasingly important in the EU. Such services are essential not only for the everyday life of EU citizens, but also for the EU economy at large. This fact explains the large number of EC specific regulatory measures taken in the area of financial services which...

The rapid expansion of European contract law in the field of consumer financial services gives rise to the question to what extent it is self-sufficient. A self-sufficient European contract law presupposes the existence of an EU-made and EU-enforced contract-related legal order which is largely...

The relationship between the investment firm and its (potential) client was traditionally the exclusive domain of private law. The leading role of private law in determining the investment firm-client relationship, however, has recently been put under pressure as a result of the EC securities...