Fall 2005
Wednesday, November 16th: "'Old' vs. 'New' Europe: Social Stability vs. Labour Mobility:The Laval Litigation"
Norbert Reich
Faculty of Law, Bremen University
Former Rector of the Riga Graduate School of Law
4:00 p.m., 8411 Social Science
Sponsored by:
- UW-Madison's EU Center of Excellence
- Institute for Legal Studies (ILS)
- Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA)
- Global Legal Studies Initiative (GLSI)
- Wisconsin Project on Governance and Regulation (WISGAR)
- Wisconsin Contracts Group
About this talk: The accession to the EU of Member States from Eastern Europe has created a potential conflict between the EU's commitments to social protection and its principles of free movement and anti-discrimination. This conflict took political form with stories of a possible invasion of Polish plumbers into France. It has now taken legal form in the Laval litigation in the European Court of Justice. In Laval, Swedish unions took industrial action against a Latvian firm using Latvian workers on a Swedish construction site who were paid significantly less than the wages set by a collective agreement entered into between unions and the construction industry. The union boycott forced the Laval firm to withdraw from Sweden and led to litigation that has reached the ECJ. The issue is whether by allowing Swedish unions to carry out the boycott, Swedish law violates EU principles of freedom to provide services and discriminates against non-nationals because Swedish law allows boycotts against foreign but not Swedish firms. Professor Reich, who represents Latvia in the ECJ will explain the legal issues in the case and show how the underlying social conflict reflects a contradiction at the heart of post-enlargement Europe.
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005: "In search of a 'European contract law' and its implications for Eastern Europe"
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Norbert Reich
Faculty of Law, Bremen University
Ex-Rector, Riga Graduate School of Law
Noon, Lubar Commons (Law School room 7200)
A light lunch will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
Hosted by: Professor David Trubek with introductions by Professor Stewart Macaulay.
Sponsored by:
- European Union Center of Excellence
- Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA)
- European Studies Alliance
- Global Legal Studies Initiative
- Wisconsin Project on Governance and Regulation (WISGAR)
- Wisconsin Contracts Group
Abstract: The development of European
contract law has been a "hodge-podge" of
three different trends: (1) Community harmonisation in certain areas of contract
law by directives and case law on consumer protection, anti-discrimination,
procurement and to a small extent commercial contracts (the so-called acquis)!
(2) Commission initiatives to codify (?), restate (?), build (?) a "European
contract law," the last concerned with creating a so-called "common
frame of reference" (CFR in eurospeak!) (3) Codification of contract
law by new Member States in order to "de-socialise" private law
and meet requirements of market economy as enshrined in EU law. There have
been "spill-overs" even to the Russian Civil Code. While new Member
States had to take over the existing body of EU Law (acquis), they choose different
forms of implementation, thus giving raise to a surprising amount of diversity.
There is still no conceptual clarity, even less theoretical reflection on how
to combine these three different trends. The paper will make proposals for
a "multi-level" decentralised approach which meets requirements
of EU integration and extension better than any attempt at a centralised solution.
Norbert Reich is a professor of law and the former Rector of the Riga Graduate
School of Law in Latvia. Previously he was professor of Civil, Commercial and
European Law the University of Bremen in Germany where he also has served as
Dean of the Law School. He was the Managing director of Aufbaustudium Europarecht
from 1997-2001, and served as an Editor of the Journal of Consumer Policy from
1975 until 2000. He also has served as the President of the International Academy
of Consumer and Commercial Law (2000-02) and the European Law Faculties Association
(2000-02). He has been the President (since 1986) of the Consumer Advisory
Council, Senate Office (Ministry) of Economics, State of Hamburg and has been
adviser to the European Commission, German Bundestag, BEUC and several States
on many issues relating to European Law.
Papers related to this talk - available in electronic form by contacting Pam Hollenhorst at pshollen@wisc.edu:
- "A European Contract Law -- Ghost or host for integration?"
- "Transformation of Contract Law and Civil Justice in the New EU Member Countries"
Friday, Oct. 28: "EU Governance and the Future of Social Europe"
206 Ingraham
Hall
Noon to 3pm
Sponsored by:
- Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy
- European Union Center of Excellence
- Wisconsin Project on Governance and Regulation
- International Institute's Governance Research Circle.
At the Lisbon European Council in March 2000, the EU embraced an ambitious new goal: to become the worlds most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. To advance this Lisbon Strategy, the EU simultaneously introduced a new form of governance: the Open Method of Coordination(OMC), based on benchmarking national progress towards common European objectives and organized mutual learning. In the spring of 2005, amid widespread concern that the EU was in danger of failing to achieve its growth and employment goals, the European Council relaunched the Lisbon Strategy, based on a revised set of objectives and policy coordination arrangements. To this volatile mix has since been added a renewed debate about the Future of the European Social Model, initiated by Tony Blair and the UK Presidency. This workshop will examine the controversies surrounding the Lisbon Strategy and consider the implications of recent developments for EU governance and the future of Social Europe.
- "If economic governance is the problem, is policy coordination
the solution?"
Iain Begg, London School of Economics - "Law and Employment Governance in the EU"
Clarie Kilpatrick, Cambridge University - "The Lisbon Strategy, the Open Method of Coordination, and
the future of Social Europe"
Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Spring 2005
Monday, January 31: Conference: "Environmental Policy: International Possibilities and Opportunities in Law"
See http://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/research/environmentalpolicy/index.html for more information.
