European Private Law

Book excerpt: This handbook provides reliable information on private law in an increasingly integrated Europe. It contains a collection of specially commissioned essays, including contributions on: corporation law, trust, law of sales, competition law, products liability, personal injuries law, limitation periods, the harmonization of European private law, and more. The essays are designed not only to offer a comprehensive overview of the different topics, but also to display and provoke lively and controversial debate. The handbook addresses some issues that appear to be both growing in momentum and largely overlooked by contemporary literature, namely a) the need to examine current and possible future developments in European private law institutions and issues affecting the legal lives of private, business, and public actors; b) the opportunity to fill a gap in the comparative literature through a concise reference book, which offers quick and easy access to the most relevant legal issues; and c) the cultural debate as to what European private law is and could be, rather than what it ought to be. It follows that the handbook is not meant to simply describe substantive law, but instead to "compare" private law institutions and cultures.