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Abstract:
The continuing headlong increase in cross-border legal issues of all kinds raises a host of new issues for private law even as it reconfigures the old issues, both in theory and in practice. In an effort to identify trends and consolidate what we’ve learned in this important area, outstanding . This volume reproduces, in definitive English texts, twenty-two of the papers presented at a conference of legal scholars from nine European countries (plus Australia) convened at the University of Helsinki in August 2006.
The issues addressed cluster around four basic questions:
- To what extent does the multiculturalism of the European Union hamper the development of common private law rules?
- Which rules that are specific for a particular state / region / culture need to be preserved?
- To what extent can localism be met with variations in the application of common provisions?
- What problems for the common rules are posed by the fact that they are to be implemented in a multilingual society?
While overarching concerns such as social justice, harmonization, culture, and diversity pervade all the essays, such crucial practical considerations as legal translation and regulation of advertising are not neglected.
The book will be welcomed by academics in the various fields of private law and will also be of interest to practitioners in commercial and company law and to policymakers in many areas of government regulation.
Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
1. Introduction: Harmonization and National Cultures - Thomas Wilhelmsson
Part 2: Legal Culture and Societal Culture
2. Legal Culture and the General Societal Culture - Kaarlo Tuori
3. The European Union, Law and Society: Making the Societal-Cultural Difference - Ruth Sefton-Green
4. European Tort Law and the Many Cultures of Europe - Cees van Dam
Part 3: Private Law Post Socialism
5. Is the Socialist Legal Tradition ‘Dead and Buried’? The Continuity of Certain Elements of Socialist Legal Culture in Polish Civil Procedure - Rafal Manko
6. Contract Law in a Changing Society: Hungarian Experiences - Attila Menyhárd
Part 4: Cultural Diversity and Harmonization
7. Conflict and Compromise in the Harmonization of European Law - Lorenz Kähler
8. Legal Culture as Mental Software, or: How to Overcome National Legal Culture? - Jan Smits
Part 5: Cultural Diversity and Social Justice
9. Does Social Justice Require the Preservation of Diversity in the Private Laws of Member States of Europe? - Hugh Collins
10. The Common Frame of Reference/Optional Code and the Various Understandings of Social Justice in Europe - Brigitta Lurger
11. Exporting Economic Democracy: Social Justice and Private Law from the Point of View of Non-European Countries - Alessandro Somma
Part 6: Business Contracts
12. Harmonized Contract Clauses in Different Business Cultures - Giuditta Cordero Moss
Part 7: Consumer Protection
13. The Average European Consumer: A Legal Fiction? - Thomas Wilhelmsson
14. The Regulation of Comparative Advertising and Cultural Variations - Johan Bärlund
15. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Marketing Targeted at Minors - Klaus Viitanen
16. Effective Enforcement and Different Enforcement Cultures in Europe - Peter Rott
Part 8: Credit
17. Renting a Slave: European Contract Law in the Credit Society - Udo Reifner
18. Security Rights and the Lack of a Priority Debate: How to Proceed with Choice of Law and Harmonization? - Teemu Juutilainen
Part 9: Harmonization and Language
19. On the Indeterminacy of Legal Translation - Susanna Lindroos-Hovinheimo
20. The Tower of Babel and the Interpretation of EU Law: Implications for Equality of Languages and Legal Certainty - Elina Paunio
Part 10: Local Multiculuralism
21. Multi-religious Societies and State Legal Systems: Religious Marriages, the State and Implications for Human Rights - Anat Scolnicov
22. Can Private Law Help to Save Multicultural Australia? - Barbara Hocking and Scott Guy
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