Cafagii, Fabrizio --- "The Making of European Private Law: Governance Design" [2008] ELECD 200; in Cafaggi, Fabrizio; Muir Watt, Horatia (eds), "Making European Private Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Making European Private Law

Editor(s): Cafaggi, Fabrizio; Muir Watt, Horatia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201980

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: The Making of European Private Law: Governance Design

Author(s): Cafagii, Fabrizio

Number of pages: 64

Extract:

13. The making of European private law:
governance design1
Fabrizio Cafaggi

1. THE DEFINITION OF EPL AND ITS MULTILEVEL
DIMENSION
European Private Law (EPL) is a stipulative not a legislative definition;2 the
result of scholarly work, which has entered policy discussion, concerning
desirability and feasibility of the harmonization process of different areas,
traditionally associated with private law. This debate has focused for some
time on the opportunity to draft a European Civil Code.3 After extensive
debate, even among European institutions, the focus has shifted onto a less


1 This chapter builds on a working paper jointly prepared with Horatia Muir-
Watt in the summer of 2005 for the research project on regulation and governance
within the NEW GOV project. Thanks to Karen Banks, Bruno de Witte and Paolo
Ponzano for useful conversations concerning some of the issues addressed in the chap-
ter. Thanks for valuable research assistance to Lukasz Gorywoda and Sophie Stalla-
Bourdillon. Responsibility is my own.
2 The expression `private law' is not defined in the resolutions of the European
Parliament; see Alpa, G. (2000), `European Community Resolutions and the
Codification of "Private Law"', European Review of Private Law, 2 (8), 321­34, at p.
324. On the European private law see Hesselink, Martijn Willem (2000), The New
European Private Law: Essays on the Future of Private Law in Europe, The Hague and
London: Kluwer Law International; Smits, J. (ed.) (2001), The Contribution of Mixed
Legal Systems to European Private Law, Antwerp: Intersentia; Grundmann, S. (2001),
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