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11. Financial Crises and European Private Law

Guido Comparato (author)

Chapter of: Uncovering European Private Law: A Student Handbook(pp. 207–228)

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Title	11. Financial Crises and European Private Law
Contributor	Guido Comparato (author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0448.11
Landing page	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0448/chapters/10.11647/obp.0448.11
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright	Guido Comparato;
Publisher	Open Book Publishers
Published on	2025-06-05
Long abstract	Does private law play a role in the occurrence of financial crises, and how does it react and change in response to them? The chapter illustrates the relationship between private law and financial crises by looking at the constitutive role of law for finance, the impact of crises on private law relations, the ways in which the law can be used to mitigate the impact of crises on consumers, the relationship between financial regulation and contract, the reform of private law to achieve financial stability and, more fundamentally, the societal significance of financial crises for European private law itself: what do we expect from private law in a financialised society and how has the European private law project evolved since the last global crisis?
Page range	pp. 207–228
Print length	22 pages
Language	English (Original)

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Contributors

Guido Comparato

(author)

Reader in Private Law at Birkbeck, University of London

Dr. Guido Comparato is a Reader in Private Law at Birkbeck College, University

of London. He was previously a Lecturer in Commercial Law at Brunel University

London and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the European University Institute.

He holds a PhD in law from the University of Amsterdam. See https://www.bbk.

ac.uk/our-staff/profile/9148851/guido-comparato

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Does private law play a role in the occurrence of financial crises, and how does it react and change in response to them? The chapter illustrates the relationship between private law and financial crises by looking at the constitutive role of law for finance, the impact of crises on private law relations, the ways in which the law can be used to mitigate the impact of crises on consumers, the relationship between financial regulation and contract, the reform of private law to achieve financial stability and, more fundamentally, the societal significance of financial crises for European private law itself: what do we expect from private law in a financialised society and how has the European private law project evolved since the last global crisis?