Conference Theme

Department of Private Law and Notarial Law, University of Groningen
In collaboration with Groningen Centre for Law and Governance (GCL), Groningen Graduate School of Law (GGSL), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Traditionally, private law rules governing the relationships between private parties were enforced by the judiciary at the initiative of private parties through the means available within private law. The characteristic private law approach to enforcement requires, for example, that the defendant pays compensation to a person directly harmed by the defendant's breach of the private law rule.

Nowadays, however, administrative agencies have become increasingly involved in the enforcement of private law through public law means, such as a fine for breach of the private law rule. An important role in fostering public enforcement of private law has been played by the EU. The current policy model of European private law enforcement as promoted by the European Commission is guided by enforcement through national and/or European administrative agencies. Such agencies have been established not only in the highly regulated areas, such as financial services and services of general economic interest, but also in the area of consumer protection.

The rise of administrative enforcement via agencies in the field of European private law has resulted in a complex mix of public and private enforcement mechanisms varying across different sectors affected by EU law and across different Member States.

The aim of this conference is to study the relationship between administrative and judicial enforcement in different fields of European private law, both at EU and national level, and the consequences of different enforcement strategies for the development of substantive private law rules.

In particular, the following issues will be addressed: To what extent can the EU limit the Member States' leeway in the field of enforcement by prescribing modes of enforcement and the way public and private enforcement mechanisms should interact with each other? What combinations of enforcement mechanisms have been adopted across different fields affected by EU law at European and/or national level? To what extent do administrative agencies become involved in private relationships? Do they have a function of consumer protection? Can they deal with individual complaints? To what extent is there a coordination between administrative and judicial enforcement in individual cases at European and/or national level? Can the same conduct, for example, be considered lawful by an administrative agency and unlawful by a court? To what extent do Member States have room to decide upon these issues under the existing EU law? How do the enforcement strategies, in particular, the rise of public enforcement in many fields, affect the development of (European) private law? Should the coordination between administrative and judicial enforcement in specific sectors be improved and, if so, how and at what level? And, last but not least, do we need a uniform enforcement strategy and/or policy to coordination between administrative and judicial enforcement at EU level for all sectors?