Who does What? On the Allocation of Regulatory Competences in European Private Law

As the European Union (EU) matures, there is an increasing debate, partly fuelled by fierce national criticism offered by Eurosceptic politicians, partly initiated by the EU institutions themselves, on the way in which the EU has developed and what the EU must look like in the future. This debate includes a discussion on one of the core aspects of European integration: at which level should the rules be set and who decides where the authority to do so should lie? Private law has an important role to play in this discussion. Many private law rules touch on the core of the internal market as they serve to foster trade or to offer protection to market participants, such as consumers.In 2011, the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI) was founded. M-EPLI researchers combine European Private Law scholarship in the fields of contract, property, commercial and procedural law as well as legal theory. In this book M-EPLI fellows present perspectives on the allocation of competences in European Private Law. This includes both general perspectives and criteria on the basis of which to decide who does what in European Private Law, but also specific perspectives relating to the various fields M-EPLI's researchers cover. All contributions share a common approach in which each author or team of authors addresses the same two questions: (i) What are the criteria to decide upon the ideal design of their field of law for the EU?; (ii) Who should set the rules: what is in the author(s) view the optimal mix of national and European producers of legal norms?

After graduating in 1978 at the Faculty of law of the University of Leiden, Jaap Hage worked at the same University as scientific assistant/Assistant Professor until 1989. In 1983 he studied also Philosophy and in 1987 he obtained a PhD for the thesis on legal philosophy and meta-ethics, entitled "Feiten en betekenis". From 1989 to 1991, he worked at the Department of computer science, on a research project on the user interface of software to protect from software maintenance. From 1991 he worked first as Associate Professor and from 2006 as a professor at the Law Faculty of the Maastricht University at the Department of interdisciplinary study. His research is in the field of the theory of law, with special emphasis on the logic of legal reasoning and the general concepts of law.Nicole Kornet is since 2013 Associate Professor of Commercial Law at Maastricht University. She graduated from the University of Otago, New Zealand in 1997 with a Bachelor of Laws with first class honours and a Bachelor of Arts. In 1999, she graduated from Maastricht University with a master's degree in Comparative and European Law (cum laude) after participating in the Magister Iuris Communis programme. In September 1999, Nicole joined the private law department of Maastricht University as a junior lecturer. In 2006 she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled "Contract Interpretation and Gap Filling: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives" and was appointed as Assistant Professor of Commercial Law at Maastricht University. In September 2013 she was appointed as Associate Professor.Nicole is a fellow at the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI) and a member of its coordinating team. She is also a fellow at the Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR). Her research focuses on the impact of globalisation on international commercial contract law and practice, in particular on cross-cultural dimensions of international contracting.