This book takes up a continuing, controversial and to some extent rather confusing debate in EU law – in both academia and in ECJ (the Court of Justice of the EU as it will be abbreviated in the following) case law – on the discovery, shaping and perhaps defence of general principles which may unite its rather heterogeneous involvement in private law, or, as I prefer to call it, civil law relations. The study is not meant to “open” the route to some type of codification, consolidation or restatement of EU civil law, but more modestly to explain its present status, thus making any “optional instruments” nugatory. The debate on EU law principles is much more advanced in EU constitutional and administrative law. EU civil law seems to be lagging behind, but will certainly gather steam the more EU law takes an interest in – some call it “invades” – “horizontal” relations between private persons, and shapes remedies, both substantive and procedural, of its own.

The seven principles, explained in the introduction and treated in detail in the seven following chapters, have an impact on substantive, procedural and methodological matters which have traditionally belonged to the law of Member States but which have seen a shift in competence and legitimacy towards the EU – a shift welcomed by many, but also feared by others. This study does not take a stand in this debate, but simply analyses the remarkable competence “creep” promoted and to some extent provoked by the abundant case law of the ECJ which forms the basis for the “bottom-up” approach used in this study.

The study covers many areas of EU civil law, such as free movement and competition issues, employment relations, consumer law, non-discrimination issues, services in the general economic interest, EU attempts to create a Common European Sales Law (CESL), as well related procedural matters within the scope of EU law. Last but not least, reference to fundamental rights is made continuously, namely to those enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, but also to those in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and earlier case law of the ECJ. A caveat should be added: the study never tries to exhaustively discuss any of the areas referred to.