NWO Vidi grant for Dr Chantal Mak
Chantal Mak (CSECL) has been awarded a Vidi grant for her research on judicial law-making in European private law.
Chantal’s research concerns the interaction among national and European judiciaries in the deliberation of value choices in private-legal disputes. All EU countries place limits on private actors’ freedom in light of the public interest. How should judges define these limits in the interplay of rules deriving from national systems and from EU law, which reflect different underlying values? In this research project, a (partial) normative theory of judicial law-making in the field of European private law will be developed to give guidance for the handling of these types of cases.
Project summary
Judges in Utopia: The new constructive approach to the social justice debate in European private law
Political-philosophical calls for ‘more Europe’ as a response to the economic crisis reveal the lack of civic solidarity underlying the project of European integration. Echoes of this debate inform the judicial application of the rules facilitating market integration, most importantly rules of private law (contracts, property, liability). The concept of social justice endorsed at EU level continues to significantly diverge from national concepts. The interplay of ideas of justice has not yet resulted in a lasting constitutional settlement that is able to reconcile conceptions of the ‘common good’ pursued in European society. Consequently, judges struggle to align national social rights with European market freedoms in cases concerning private-legal transactions.
While the analysis of the ‘social deficit’ in European private law has long followed a critical, deconstructive approach, this project takes a constructive turn. It aims at developing a normative theory of judicial rulemaking for the field of European private law. First, it analyses the implications of theories of European constitutionalism and philosophical theories of deliberation for judicial reasoning in this area. The focus lies on the potential of fundamental rights to deliberate value-choices in judicial rulemaking in the field of private law. Within this general framework, in-depth studies will be conducted of: (i) the interplay between principles of law in the multi-level order of the EU and its Member States, and (ii) the guaranteeing of effective remedies on the interface of EU and national private laws. Combined with the continuous input of an expert Working Group, these studies will feed into the elaboration of a normative theory that (a) reconceptualises the role of judges in today’s Europe, especially in their relation to the legislature, and (b) provides them with methodological guidance for the identification and integration of views on the ‘common good’ in the resolution of private legal disputes.
NWO Vidi
Vidi is part of the Innovational Research programme (Veni, Vidi, Vici) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2013, 540 researchers submitted a Vidi proposal. 88 have been awarded, among which 30 proposals by female researchers. The successful applicants will receive a maximum amount of 800,000 euro for their research in the coming 5 years.