The annual conference "European Contract Law and (Legal) Nationalism" will take place in our University in Lyon on the 20th and 21st of June 2025, in collaboration with Society of European Contract Law (SECOLA).
Argument
The theme of this year's annual conference can be seen as rooted in the very foundations of European (private) law, which from the outset has not developed in opposition to national legal systems but by creating a multi-level legal system based on the principle of competence and cross-influences rather than hierarchy. At heart, European law is designed to preserve the plurality of the Member States' legal systems while, at the same time, transcending their particularism by holding them together and by fostering their convergence, as it is beautifully conveyed through the motto ʻIn varietate concordiaʼ.
The principle of subsidiarity, together with proportionality, remains a constitutional cornerstone of European Union law, clearly indicating that EU law cannot be conceived as a denationalization of the Member States' legal systems. At the same time, it is evident that the need for their Europeanization must be fully pursued, so that in their distinctiveness, they have to reflect the unity of European law and to conform to the primacy that characterizes it and to the objective of legal integration within the single market.
The unity of European law can only be understood if it is upheld through the pluralism that has always been the most defining characteristic of our continent. For this same reason, the national character of the Member States can no longer be asserted as an absolute value that stands on its own but must necessarily be mediated through the European character, which defines their very historical identity. This preservation of national identity through the mediation of European identity (and vice versa) is today constantly threatened by unilateral perspectives that artificially isolate these two aspects, which instead reflect one another. National identity, when not mediated by its belonging to European unity, becomes blind nationalism that opposes others and isolates individual states. European identity, when not mediated by national identity, withers into an abstract universalism that stifles the uniqueness of each language, community, and culture.
Conference organisers
- Michel CANNARSA (mcannarsa@univ-catholyon.fr)
- Pietro SIRENA (pietro.sirena@unibocconi.it)
Practical information
- Conference venue : Lyon Catholic University - Merieux Amphitheatre | 10 place des archives 69002 Lyon
- Conference bureau & information : Başak Başoğlu - Secretary General of SECOLA | basakbasoglu@gmail.com
