How European is European Private International Law Sources, Court Practice, Academic Discourse

Over the course of the last few decades, the European legislature has adopted a total of 18 Regulations in the area of private international law, including civil procedure. The resulting substantial legislative unification has been described as the first true 'Europeanisation' of private international law, and even as a kind of 'European Choice of Law Revolution'. However, it remains largely unclear whether the far-reaching unification of the 'law on the books' has turned private international law into a truly European 'law in action': To what extent is European private international law actually based on uniform European rules common to all Member States, rather than on state treaties or instruments of enhanced cooperation? Is the manner in which academics and practitioners analyse and interpret European private international law really different from previously existing domestic approaches to private international law? Or, rather, is the actual application and interpretation of European private international law still influenced, or even dominated, by national legal traditions, leading to a re-fragmentation of a supposedly uniform body of law?In bringing together academics from all over Europe, How European is European Private International Law? sets out to answer for the first time these crucial and interrelated questions. It sheds light on the conspicuous lack of 'Europeanness' currently symptomatic of European private international law and discusses how this body of law can become truly European in character in the future.

Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein is a Director at the Institute for Comparative and Private International Law at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He is the chairman of the Second Commission of the German Council for Private International Law, a member of the Board of the International Law Association's German branch and an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is the author of numerous books and articles on private international and comparative law which have been honoured by the Max Planck Society and the German Stock Corporation Institute.Professor Eva-Maria Kieninger is Professor of German and European Private Law and Private International Law at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. She is a member of the German Council for Private International Law, the International Academy of Comparative Law and the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. In honour of her work she has been elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Science.Professor Giesela Rhl is Professor of Private International and Comparative Law at the University of Jena, Germany, and a Co-Founder and Co-Director of its Centre for European Studies. She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Law Institute and the International Academy of Comparative Law. Her work has been honoured by the American Society of International Law, the German National Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society