Legal Integration of Private Law in Europe and in the United States of America – Comparative Remarks

Abstract

The increasing convergence of law, particularly private and commercial law in the Western legal systems is among the most debated issues in comparative law studies. This paper analyzes legal integration of private (and commercial) law in the U.S. and in the EU legal systems, and aims at comparing – in a nutshell – actors, methods, strategies and outcomes of this phenomenon in the two different institutional settings. Legal integration initiatives are part of a coherent plan to support economic transactions with a legal structure that encourages enterprise and reduces costs. The motivation for these changes is economic, but the engine driving legal integration is essentially political and cultural, and therefore is closely linked to the institutional setting and the legal tradition(s) in which legal integration takes place.