On Successful Legal Transplants in a Future Ius Commune Europaeum

Jan M. Smits, University of Tilburg

Abstract

This paper investigates to what extent legal transplants can contribute to the emergence of a harmonised private law for the European Union. Its focus is not on the way in which or why legal transplants take place, but on what they lead to. The paper discusses several views on why legal transplants are important and puts forward one particular view of legal harmonisation in which the borrowing of law is of main importance.