Category Archives: European Private Law
Mindy Duffourc, ‘New Defects: Liability for Product Behavior’
ABSTRACT A recent wave of litigation against technology companies is forcing courts to address novel legal questions surrounding whether digital technologies are products subject to product liability claims. Product classification is a question of law, but the pluralistic conditions driving courts’ ad hoc assessment have led to a fragmented answer to this question for digital […]
‘Who owns your crypto?’
When crypto exchange ‘Knaken’ was declared bankrupt this summer, its many clients faced an uncomfortable question: did they ever actually own the crypto-assets they invested in? The answer to this question is of crucial importance when it comes to their position in the insolvency proceedings. Are they owners with a claim to specific assets, or […]
Pédamon and Vassileva, ‘The Reasonable Person in French and English Law: Insights on Contractual Interpretation from a Tale of Faux Amis’
ABSTRACT The French legislator asserts that the reasonable person, now enshrined as an objective standard of interpretation in Article 1188 of the Code civil following the 2016 reform, has been present in the code since 1804. Yet a historical overview reveals that the reasonable person in French law is not a homogenous character – distinct […]
Chu and Pollmann, ‘Debt, Judgment, and Security: Finality in Litigation from an Anglo-German Perspective’
ABSTRACT This paper compares English and German law in the context of a creditor who has recovered money judgment for part of a contractual debt, then seeks either to sue for the balance or to enforce a pre-existing security. Under English law, a second action for the balance is precluded by the doctrine of merger […]
Davronbek Abdugaffarov, ‘Locating Non-Contractual Harm and Liability for Cross-Border Damage Caused by Autonomous AI Agents’
ABSTRACT Four companion articles by this author examined how private international law should treat cross-border contracts negotiated and concluded entirely by autonomous AI agents, addressing choice of law, jurisdiction, breach of an implied duty of care, and enforcement of arbitral awards. All four operated within the contractual branch of private international law, where a relationship […]
Kawka and Halama, ‘Objecting to Consumer Price Profiling: The Scope of Direct Marketing under Article 21(2)-(3) GDPR’
ABSTRACT The analysis concerns the classification of price profiling as processing for direct marketing purposes and the scope of the obligations arising from an objection. A doctrinal legal method is used to interpret Article 21(2)-(3) GDPR, examine CJEU case law and compare selected scholarly views and data protection authorities’ positions. Under the interpretation proposed, behaviour-based […]
Punam Shahriar Nirjhar, ‘Global Copyright Injunctions Against Online Intermediaries and Territorial Sovereignty Under Private International Law’
ABSTRACT Global copyright takedown injunctions against online intermediaries are causing territorial sovereignty conflicts with private international law. A ruling by a court of one country to restrict or remove content on a domestic level can have consequences beyond that country’s borders. This act interferes with judicial comity and limits the freedom of other countries to […]
Ammar Hassan, ‘The Right to Be Forgotten, Except by AI’
ABSTRACT Europe’s proposed reforms risk shrinking data rights when they should be strengthening them. Imagine a woman who, in 2016, posts on a health forum about a medication that is not working for her. She posts under a pseudonym, believing it will keep her anonymous, because she wants advice from people who understand her situation. […]
Afelia Nemcova, ‘Reliance and Market Entry in European Pre-Contractual Liability’
ABSTRACT Market entry often begins before the parties create an enforceable contractual relationship. During negotiations, firms may incur territory-specific costs, disclose commercially sensitive information, reorganize operations, or abandon alternative opportunities in reliance on a prospective transaction. When negotiations fail, the legal problem is not whether the disappointed party should obtain the expected benefits of the […]
Mendelsohn and Hantel, ‘Commutative Justice as Fairness in the Digital Economy – A Private Law Interpretation of Fairness in EU Digital Acts’
ABSTRACT A number of new European Union (EU) law acts dealing with the digital economy reference fairness as one of their main goals or benchmarks, which has sparked renewed interest in the normative meaning of fairness and the role it plays in the regulation of the digital market. This paper draws on a private law […]