Presentation

The theme of this year's annual conference can be seen as rooted in the very foundations of European (private) law, which from the outset has not developed in opposition to national legal systems but by creating a multi-level legal system based on the principle of competence and cross-influences rather than hierarchy. At heart, European law is designed to preserve the plurality of the Member States' legal systems while, at the same time, transcending their particularism by holding them together and by fostering their convergence, as it is beautifully conveyed through the motto ʻIn varietate concordiaʼ.

The principle of subsidiarity, together with proportionality, remains a constitutional cornerstone of European Union law, clearly indicating that EU law cannot be conceived as a denationalization of the Member States' legal systems. At the same time, it is evident that the need for their Europeanization must be fully pursued, so that in their distinctiveness, they have to reflect the unity of European law and to conform to the primacy that characterizes it and to the objective of legal integration within the single market.

The unity of European law can only be understood if it is upheld through the pluralism that has always been the most defining characteristic of our continent. For this same reason, the national character of the Member States can no longer be asserted as an absolute value that stands on its own but must necessarily be mediated through the European character, which defines their very historical identity. This preservation of national identity through the mediation of European identity (and vice versa) is today constantly threatened by unilateral perspectives that artificially isolate these two aspects, which instead reflect one another. National identity, when not mediated by its belonging to European unity, becomes blind nationalism that opposes others and isolates individual states. European identity, when not mediated by national identity, withers into an abstract universalism that stifles the uniqueness of each language, community, and culture.

Programme

Friday 20 June

Opening

9:00 : Registration and Refreshments

9.30 : Welcome
Grégory Woimbee, Rector, Université Catholique de Lyon
Michel Cannarsa, Dean of Law, Université Catholique de Lyon
Pietro Sirena, Università Bocconi, Milano – President of SECOLA
Marjolaine Monot-Fouletier, HDR Professor, Université Catholique de Lyon

10:00 : Key-note speech - European Contract Law and Legal Nationalism – A Paradoxical Relationship
Laurence Usunier, Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne

Panel I - Fairness, Digital Strategy, and National Identities

Chair : Michel Cannarsa, UCLy

10.30 : The Various Fairness Tests for B2B Contracts in EU Law. Interaction, Competition and Conflict Between National and European Law
Hans Schulte-Nölke, Universität Osnabrück

Digital Services Act and National Protection of Consumers Towards the Online Platforms
Paraskevi Paparseniou, University of Athens

Discussion

11.30 : Coffee Break

Panel II - Constitutionalisation of Private Law, Fundamental Rights, and European Identity

Chair : Lucinda Miller, University College London – Executive Board of SECOLA

12.00 : EU Fundamental Rights and Contract. The Missing Concept of ‘Subjective Right’
Dorota Leczykiewicz, University of Oxford

Europeanisation and Constitutionalisation of Private Law as Determinants of the Evolution of Law in the 21st Century and its Revolutionary Changes
Beata J. Kowalczyk, Uniwersytet Gdański

Discussion

13:30 : Lunch Break

Panel III - Efficiency and Competitiveness in a Multi-levelled Legal System

Chair : Jacobien Rutgers, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – Executive Board of SECOLA

14.30 : European Contract Law Between Harmonisation and Legal Nationalism. The Challenge of Competitiveness in an Enlarged Europe
Silvia Ferreri and Andrea Piletta Massaro, Università di Torino

Law and Economics of Private Law : (Un) desirable Nationalism in European Contract Law
Nikola Ilić, Univerziteta u Beogradu

Discussion

16:00 : Coffee Break

Panel IV - Balancing Legal Harmonization and Ethical Pluralism

Chair : Louis-Daniel Muka Tshibende, Université Catholique de Lyon

16.30 : Reconciling Ethical Pluralism and Legal Unity : boni mores as a Reflection of National Identity in European Private Law
António Barroso Rodrigues, Universidade de Lisboa

Legal Pluralism and the Integration of European Contract Law. Subsidiarity as a Balance Between National Identity and Normative Convergence Dynamics
Alberto Jaci, Università di Messina

Discussion

19:30 : Conference dinner

Saturday 21 June

9.00 : General Assembly

Panel V - National Laws Between European Integration and Local Autonomy

Chair : Başak Başoğlu, Piri Reis Üniversitesi – Executive Board of SECOLA

9.30 : European Contract Law as Nation-building
Guido Comparato, Birkbeck University of London

The Development of a Catalan Civil Code : Between Autonomy and European Harmonization
Rosa M. Garcia-Teruel, Universitat de Barcelona

Discussion

11.00 : Coffee Break

Panel VI - National Legal Cultures and Professions, and Europeanization of the Law

Chair : Stefan Grundmann, Humboldt Universität, Berlin – Honorary President of SECOLA

11.30 : (Non-)Conforming Interpretation. Evasion Strategies of National Courts
Bettina Heiderhoff, Universität Münster

Should we Have a Shared Contract Law ?
Bianca Gardella Tedeschi, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara

Discussion and conclusions

13.00 : End of conference

Contact : basakbasoglu@gmail.com

Registration : https://www.secola.org/europeancontract-law-and-legal-nationalism/