Towards a European Code of Private International Law? Liber Amicorum Marc Fallon

A collection of essays honoring Marc Fallon has recently been published by Larcier under the title Vers un code européen de droit international privé? Further information can be found here.

The collection, edited by Jean-Yves Carlier and Stéphanie Francq (both professors at the Université Catholique de Louvain, as the honoree), brings together some twenty contributions (mostly in French), divided into four parts.

Part one, opened by an introductory contribution by Alain Wijffels («Ceci n’est pas un code»: tout code est le miroir de la science juridique de son époque), revolves around national approaches to the codification of private international law in a selection of countries, namely Italy (Fausto Pocar), Belgium (Patrick Wautelet), France (Marie-Laure Niboyet), Switzerland (Thomas Kadner Graziano), Japan (Dai Yokomizo), the Netherlands (Hans Ulrich Jessurun d’Oliveira), and Germany (Christian Kohler).

Part two discusses the objectives of codification at the European level, specifically as regards the achievement of European integration (Stéhanie Francq), the concern for social justice (Étienne Pataut), the protection of human rights (Patrick Kinsch), and EU citizenship (Jean-Yves Carlier).

The questions surrounding the means, and the feasibility itself, of a European codification of private international law form the object of part three, with a focus on founding principles (Catherine Kessedjian), constraints arising from primary law (Pietro Franzina), the spatial and material code of a possible code (Thalia Kruger and Cristina González Beilfuss, respectively). Further analysis is offered in light of the on-going discussion on the codification of French rules of private international law (Hélène Gaudemet-Tallon) and in light of scientific codification and the work of learned societies (Fabienne Jault-Seseke and Thomas Kadner Graziano).

Part four is concerned with the implications of codification and consists of a general contribution by Pieter-Augustijn Van Malleghem, followed by a an analysis by Johan Meeusen of the impact of codification on domestic law and by Hans Van Loon on the complementarity of global and regional efforts aimed at the unification of private international law.

Some concluding remarks are offered by the book’s honoree himself, Marc Fallon.

See here for the full table of contents.