KLUWER LAW INTERNATIONAL Constitutional Values and European Contract Law Stefan Grundmann Wolters Kluwer Law & Business AUSTIN BOSTON CHICACO NEW YORK THE NETHERLANDS
Table of Contents Parti Constitutional Values and European Contract Law: An Overview 1 1 Constitutional Values and European Contract Law: An Overview 3 (Stefan Grundmann) I Introduction 4 II National Constitutions and Private Law 5 III EC Fundamental Freedoms and Private Law 8 IV Enlarging thè Perspective: EC Constitutional Freedoms, Rights and Strutturai Principles and Private Law 10 1 Three Dimensions 10 2 Fundamental Rights 11 3 Constitutional Strutturai Principles 14 V Future Perspectives: Finding A Coherent System for Ali Three Dimensions across thè Different Areas of Private Law 16 1 National Laws Differ 16 2 The Three Dimensions Differ 17 3 Areas of Private Law May Differ 17
x Table of Contents Part2 The Start: National Constitutions and Private Law 19 2 Fundamental Rights in National (Namely German) Contract Law 21 (Johannes Hager) I Introduction 22 II The Effects of Fundamental Rights 22 1 The Core Approaches 22 2 Artide 1(3) German Constitution and Laws 23 3 Application to Contracts 25 4 The Federai Constitutional Court as a 'Super-Appellate' Court 28 III The Effect of Fundamental Rights on Acts of Private Parties, in Particular on Contract Law 28 1 No Exception for Private Autonomy 28 2 Application to Testamentary Contracts 28 3 Application to Family Law 29 4 Application to Life Assurance 30 IV The European Dimension 33 1 The General Approach of thè European Court of Human Rights 33 2 The Role of Freedom of Contract in This Approach 34 V Summary 34 3 Subordinating Contract Law to Fundamental Rights: Towards a Major Breakthrough or towards Walking in Circles? 35 (Olha O. Cherednychenko) I Introduction 36 II Towards thè Subordination of Contract Law to Fundamental Rights in German Law 37 III The Complexity of Subordinating Contract Law to Fundamental Rights 41 IV Is There a Need for thè Subordination of Contract Law to Fundamental Rights? 45 V Should Contract Law in Europe Be Harmonized through thè Horizontal Effect of Fundamental Rights? 48
Table of Contents xi VI A Plea for a Complementary Relationship between Fundamental Rights and Contract Law 49 VII The Need for Further Differentiation between Kinds of thè Horizontal Effect of Fundamental Rights in Contract Law 54 1 Direct Horizontal Effect 55 2 Strong Indirect Horizontal Effect 56 3 Weak Indirect Horizontal Effect 57 Vili Concluding Remarks 59 Part3 The First Dimension on thè EC Level: Fundamental Freedoms 61 4 Fundamental Freedoms and European Contract Law 63 (Stefan Leible) I Introduction 63 II The Function of thè Fundamental Freedoms in thè Internai Market 64 III Fundamental Freedoms and Private Law 65 1 Party Autonomy as a Starting Point 65 2 Fundamental Freedoms and Member States' Regulatory Systems 66 3 Default Rules or Mandatory Law? 68 4 May National Law Escape Contrai Where thè Conflict Rules Violate a Fundamental Freedom? 69 5 Discriminating Rules of Private Law 71 6 Neutral Rules at thè Core of Private Law (Law of Obligations, Liability, Property Law) 71 IV Horizontal Effect of thè Fundamental Freedoms 72 1 Direct Horizontal Effect 73 a) Case Law of thè ECJ 73 b) Personal View 76 e) Exception for Collettive Action? 78 2 Indirect Effect 80 a) Restrictions Caused by Rules 80 b) Restrictions Not Caused by Rules 82 V Six Propositions 84
xii Table of Contents Part4 The Second Dimension on thè EC Level: Fundamental Rights, Namely Equality and Human Dignity 85 5 Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Freedoms and Contract Law 87 (Arthur S. Hartkamp) I Introduction 88 II Horizontal Effect of Provisions in thè EC Treaty and in thè ECHR 89 1 The EC Treaty: Discrimination and Fundamental Freedoms 89 a) Discrimination 89 b) Fundamental Freedoms: Free Movement of Goods 90 e) Application to Quasi-public Undertakings 91 d) Borderline Cases 92 e) Free Movement of Workers, Freedom of Establishment and to Provide Services 93 f ) The 'Exceptions' or Grounds of Justification 95 2 Fundamental Rights: The ECHR 97 a) The ECHR and Its Role in Contract Law 97 b) The ECHR and Horizontal Effect 98 e) The ECHR and a Mitigated Form of Horizontal Effect 99 3 The EC Treaty and thè ECHR Compared 102 a) No Uniform Approach: The EC Treaty and thè ECHR 102 b) No Ground for Horizontal Application of Fundamental Rights 103 e) In Favour of a Unitary Approach of Ali Freedoms 104 III Interpretation of Contracts in thè Light of thè EC Treaty and in thè ECHR 106 1 The Core Question to Be Asked 106 2 The EC Treaty 106 3 Regulations: Directives 108 4 The ECHR 108 IV Conclusions 110 6 Anti-discrimination Rules in European Contract Law 111 (Nuno Manuel Pinto Oliveira & Benedita MacCrorie) I II Introduction: The Principle of Equality in European Contract Law 111 An Assessment of Directives 2000/43 and 2004/113 from thè Perspective of thè Constitutional Principle of Autonomy 112
Table of Contents xiii 1 Collision between thè Constitutional Principles of Autonomy, Freedom of Contract and Equality 112 2 The Constitutional Protection of Autonomy, as Freedom of Contract in Portugal and Germany 113 3 The Harmonization of Autonomy, Freedom of Contract, and Equality: The Distinction between thè Public and thè Private Spheres of thè Individuai 115 III An Assessment of Directives 2000/43 and 2004/113 from thè Perspective of thè Constitutional Principle of Equality 117 1 Hierarchy between Different Grounds of Discrimination: Alterable or Unalterable Characteristics? 117 2 A Critique of thè External and Internai Justifications for thè 'Hierarchisation of Equality' 119 IV Conclusion 121 7 Human Dignity in a Different Light: European Contract Law, Social Dignity and thè Retreat of thè Welfare State 123 (Maria Rosaria Morella) I Introduction 124 II Uses and Misuse of Human Dignity in Western Law 126 III A Modest Proposai 130 IV Social Dignity in thè European Constitutional Tradition 131 V Social Dignity as a Legai Concept 135 VI Social Dignity, Welfare State Expectations and Privatization 139 1 Housing 140 2 Health Insurance 142 3 Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) 143 4 Services of General Interest 144 5 Access to Credit 145 VII Conclusion 146 8 Social Rights, Human Dignity and European Contract Law 149 (Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi) I Social Rights in thè Classifications of Fundamental Rights 150 II Beyond thè Dichotomy of Social Rights vs. Liberty Rights: The Social Dimension of Fundamental Rights Horizontality in Contract Law 152 III Human Dignity, Good Faith and Good Morals: More Similarities than Differences 156 IV Constitutionalization of Contract Law and Democratization of Legai Ethics 157
xiv V Table of Contents Constitutionalization Malpractice and Constitutionalization Good Practice 158 9 Co-determining European Private Law(s) and Constitutionalization Process(es) 161 (Giovanni Comande) I Casting Doubts and Introducing Some Thesis 162 1 Framing thè Terminology and thè Subject Matter 162 2 Unfolding thè Thesis 167 II The Complex Interplay between Constitutional Values, Economie Rights and Private Law 169 1 A Plural Notion of European Contract Law 170 2 And Its Manifold Outcomes 172 III The Peculiar Dimension of European Private Law and its 'Constitutional Embeddedness' with EC Economie Freedoms 173 1 Fundamental Rights Discourse in European Private Law 173 2 The Manifold Spirit of European Private Law(s) 176 3 The Market's Invisible Hand Shakes thè Visible Hand of Constitutional Values in Private Law 177 4 The Dialogue between Constitutional Values and EC Fundamental Freedoms in a Social Oriented European Law 179 IV Uncertain Distinctions among Constitutional Values, Case Law Trends and Legitimacy in National and Supranational Constitutionalization Discourse 182 1 Input frani Some European Constitutions and thè Missing Distinction in thè EU Constitutional Treaty 183 2 National Case Law on thè Relevance of Fundamental Rights in Contract Law: Some Lessons for thè EU 186 a) From thè Application of General Constitutional Principles 188 b) And Economie Rights 191 V From National to National: Sharing Rules to Share Values 193 1 The Sustainability and Desirability of Common Frame(s) of Constitutional Reference in European Private Law 196 2 A Tentati ve Conclusion: Towards a European Civic Citizenship 199
Table of Contents xv Part5 The Third Dimension on thè EC Level: Constitutional Structural Principles 203 10 The Institutional Perspective: The European Economie and Social Constitution and thè Role of Contract Law 205 (Giuseppe Vettori) I Introduction 206 II The Cases 206 1 Personal Dignity 206 2 The Relevance of Disparity of Power 207 3 Competition and Social Rights 208 4 Trusts and Movement of Goods 209 III The Constitutional Relevance of Private Autonomy 210 IV Principles, Rights and Rules: The Role of Contract Law 211 V The Hedgehog and thè Fox 213 11 European Contract Law and Economie Welfare: A View from Law and Economics 215 (Fernando Gomez) I Introduction 216 II Market Versus Contract: Contract and Cooperation in Economie Exchange 217 1 Biological Kin Selection 220 2 Selfish Cooperation 220 3 Altruism (or Fairness) 221 4 Reciprocity in Contractual Relationships 222 5 External Enforcement Mechanisms (Notably Contract Law) 226 III Economie Welfare and Contract Law: Efficiency and Distribution 228 IV The Proper Scope of European Contract Law 236 V Conclusions 240 12 European Contract Law: A Matter of Consumer Protection, Citizenship, or Justice? 241 (Martijn W. Hesselink) I Introduction 242 II Consumer Protection 242
xvi Table of Contents 1 The Community Policy of Consumer Protection 242 2 Contract Law as Consumer Protection 243 a) Protective Rules 243 b) Categorical Protection 243 e) A Uniform Concept 244 d) A Corollary to thè Internai Market 244 e) A Limited Set of Interests 246 3 An Expanding Scope for a Limited Perspective 247 III Citizenship 249 1 European Union Citizenship 249 2 Contract Law as a Matter of Citizenship 250 3 A Broader Perspective, but a Narrower Basis 251 IV Justice 252 1 A European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice 252 2 Contract Law as a Matter of Justice 254 a) The Need for a Common European Concept of Justice 254 b) Theories of Justice in Contract Law 256 (1) The Mirage of Social Justice (Hayek) 256 (2) Welfare Maximization (Kaplow & Shavell) 257 (3) Commutative Justice (Canaris) 257 (4) Contract as Promise (Fried) 258 (5) Two Principles of Justice (Rawls) 258 (6) Capabilities (Sen, Nussbaum) 259 3 The Need for a Genuine Area of Civil Justice 260 V A Matter of Consumer Protection, Citizenship or Justice? 260 1 The European Commission's U-turn 260 2 Roaming for Rights, or: Citizenship as Consumer Protection 262 3 Back to Justice 264