The Common Core Approach to European Private Law


3 Colum. J. Eur. L. 339 (1997)

Mauro Bussani. Mauro Bussani, J.D. 1983 University of Trieste, is Acting Professor of Private Law, University of Trento, Italy, and Visiting Professor of Comparative Law, Universitd de Montpellier I, France (1997) and Universit6 de Paris-II, Panthdon Assas, France (1998).

Ugo Mattei. J.D. 1983 University of Turin, LL.M. 1989 U.C. Berkeley, is Alfred and Hanna Fromm Professor of International and Comparative Law, Hastings College of the Law, University of California, and Professor of Civil Law, University of Turin, Italy.

This paper discusses the aim, method, and organization of the Common Core Project, a scholarly project launched five years ago by the present authors. The Project today involves more than one hundred scholars, most of them from Europe and the United States, and should produce in due course the first published outcome. We will try to place the Project in the context of a number of apparently similar “integrative” comparative law enterprises, to use the terminology of our Honorary Editor, the late Professor R. Schlesinger.

Accordingly, Part I describes both the immediate and the long-term goals of the Project. Part II discusses the methodological evolution that has taken place from Schlesinger’s Cornell Project to our work. It also tackles the main differences between the Common Core approach and other “integrative” projects taking place in Europe today. Finally, Part III describes the Project’s framework and organization.