The governing contract law dictates and regulates the life of a contract. Despite its importance, little is known about the choice of law decision-making process. Is there (ir)rationality involved? How can we ascertain this? How can we improve these judgements?

Rethinking Choice of Law in Cross-Border Sales is an innovative, multi-disciplinary, and practice-oriented initiative to examine what factors determine the way contracting parties choose the law to govern their agreements. It presents ...

This is the published version of the first Maastricht Private Law Lecture which was delivered by Reinhard Zimmermann on 27 January 2017. According to a widely held view, the law of succession is shaped by the cultural values of the society within which it prevails. Related to this is the perception that the law of succession is marked by great stability. It is thus resistant both to change and to legal harmonization. Comparative research, too, has traditionally been regarded as impractical an...

The absence of the accused in criminal proceedings leading to a conviction causes many legal and practical questions when an European Arrest Warrant is issued to execute such an in absentia judgment. Whereas some Member States see no problem in allowing trials without the accused, other Member States have serious objections to it. These different standards create many problems in practice and necessitate the executing judicial authority to request supplementary information

from the issuing ju...

Tijdens de financiële crisis van 2008 zagen overheden zich genoodzaakt om banken met belastinggeld van de ondergang te redden. Europese regeringsleiders waren het er na de crisis over eens dat in de toekomst de belastingbetaler niet langer voor de verliezen van banken behoort op te draaien. Sindsdien is er op Europees niveau nieuwe regelgeving ontwikkeld om zo’n bail-out in de toekomst te voorkomen en ervoor te zorgen dat de aandeelhouders en crediteuren van de bankinstelling de rekening ...

The effectiveness of European Community law is probably the most distinguishing feature of this unique legal order in contrast with classic international law. By contrast, the effectiveness of European Economic Area law (EEA Law), the way this other even more sui generis legal system provides comparable rights for EFTA-EEA citizens, is a silent revolution brought by the EFTA Court that has not been properly researched and exposed in the field of European law.

This book addresses first the rel...

About the book

Since the 1970s, the Black Sea has been suffering a severe pollution from excessive input of nutrients and chemicals. To improve the situation, the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Bucharest Convention) was signed in 1992 and the Black Sea Commission (BSC) was established. Environmental protection by the Black Sea Commission: Organisation and performance in comparison with the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) provides a c...

The title of this book, Fair and Just Solutions?, refers to the norm for the assessment of ownership claims to Nazi-looted art as codified in the so-called Washington Principles in 1998:

If the pre-War owners of art that is found to have been confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted, or their heirs, can be identified, steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution, recognizing this may vary according to the facts and circumstances surrounding a specific...

The credit rating industry called for many debates on its civil liability since the origin of the industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 2013, the Union legislature introduced a right to damages, which issuers and investors can directly enforce against credit rating agencies under Article 35a CRA Regulation. This provision has drawn attention because of its remarkable structure: Article 35a CRA Regulation introduced a legal ground for civil liability at the European level, whi...

De ontwikkeling van strafrecht in het kader van de Europese Unie kan niet of nauwelijks op enthousiasme rekenen. Het ontbreekt aan 'Europese idealen' die het EU-strafrecht (meer) overtuigingskracht zouden kunnen geven. In zijn oratie gaat prof. mr. P.A.M. Verrest op zoek naar die Europese idealen. Een aanknopingspunt vindt hij in de strafrechtwetenschap in de negentiende eeuw, die vreemd genoeg veel Europeser was dan nu. Waar waren de Europese idealen van toen op gebaseerd? Het strafrecht wer...