Private Law Theory

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between party autonomy and market regulation has been analysed extensively for consumer law and regulated industries. It seems to be a common understanding that European contract law in this area is predominantly characterised by a regulatory approach and consequently contains a regulated construction of party autonomy. In his contribution, Stefan Grundmann traces this relationship between party autonomy and regulation conceptually and he does so in a historically thoughtful and ambitious manner. He identifies three core regulatory phases, which are black, red, and green box regulation, which, in other publications, he saw equally occurring in European company law. The black box refers to regulation to foster the functioning of the internal market, the red box to the internal empowerment of actors, and the green box to broader societal goals, such as sustainability …

Anna Beckers, Party Autonomy and Public Regulation in European Commercial Contract Law in P Sirena and S Grundmann (eds), European Contract Law and Future Challenges: Proceedings of the 2023 SECOLA Conference pp 123-137 (Intersentia 2025).