Abstract

Towards a European Tort Law? Projects, methods, approaches. Rev. Derecho Privado [online]. 2014, n.26, pp.407-447. ISSN 0123-4366.

In the last several decades, building a common European tort law has become a primary goal for many European institutions and research groups. On the one hand, eu institutions frequently highlight the need to simplify the current diversity in European tort law, and try to achieve this goal by injecting - so far quite incoherent - pieces of legislation into the European legal framework. On the other hand, many research groups aim to enhance the Europanization process through means that are much differentiated one to the other. Some of these groups (e.g., 'the European Group on Tort Law' and the Study Group on a European Civil Code) adopt a top-down approach, and seek to draft a 'soft' European tort law. Others [e.g., the 'lus Commune Casebookfor a Common Law of Europe' project and the Common Core of European Private Law' project) follow a bottom-up path, committed to developing a better knowledge on tort law across European law-users. Despite the number and the quality of such enterprises, there is no agreement on what should be done or on who should do it. It is from this debate that this paper takes off, aiming to offer an overview of the endeavors currently under way, of the different techniques and methodologies they adopt, and of the possible outcomes that they are likely to produce in both the short run and the long run.

Keywords : Harmonization of European Law; International Private Law; Comparative Law; European Tort Law.

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