The visible hand of European Regulatory Private Law—the transformation of European private law from autonomy to functionalism in competition and regulation

Abstract

hans-w. micklitz the visible hand of european private law - outline of a research design - a new trend – ‘the economisation/ökonomisierung’ of european private law i consider the 1985 white paper on the completion of the internal market as the starting point for the ongoing transformation of the european community into a new supranational polity. the strong market-bias has somewhat superseded ‘les grandes idées politiques’, which had led to the establishment of the european economic community and which guided (and are to some extent still guiding) the project of the ‘united states of europe’. the internal market programme has become the (sole stable and consistent) driving force behind the european integration process. this has been even more the case since the 2004 enlargement and the failure of the european constitution. the so-called ‘new economic approach’ (state aid and competition) could be understood as a revival of the internal market programme. private law was and is needed to give shape to the internal market. this law shows a double face: it is regulatory in the sense that it is needed to constitute the internal market, it is competitive as the philosophy behind the regulatory measures relies heavily on market freedoms and competition. tensions the paradigm shift entails long-lasting consequences for the ‘economisation’ (internal market bias)’ and the ‘politicisation (governance)’ of the existing european legal order. the fading away of ‘les grandes idées’ and the …

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