Ⅰ·One Question, Many Answers 3
1.In Search of the Meanings of “Private Law” 3
2.From the Past to the Present 4
3.Private Law Today 8
4.Normative Polycentrism and Social Control 10
5.Community Law 13
a.Critical Interpretation 14
b.Juridical and Economic Integration 16
c.The Functional Interpretation 19
d.The Jurisprudential Interpretation 21
6.The Civil System and Private Regional Law 23
5.The “Sector Codes” and Consumer Law 27
8.Measures of the Independent Administrative Authorities and Moral Suasion 27
9.Deontological Codes 28
10.Effects of Normative Polycentrism 31
11.Private Law as a Branch of “Variable Geometry” Law 33
Ⅱ·The Beginning and the End of Human Life 35
1.Legislation, Representative Cases, Difficult Solutions 35
2.Legislative Solutions: The Case of the Embryo 36
3.Current Italian Regulations 38
4.An Open Problem: Self-determination and Advance Directives on Medical Treatment—The Biological Will 40
5.Uncertainties Facilitate the End of Life 43
6.Who Should Decide? 45
7.The Living Will 47
Ⅲ·Individual and Community 51
1.Basic Rights in the Community System 51
2.Fundamental Rights as the New Founding Principles of the European Union 55
3.The Notion of Person in the Civil Codes: The “Subject of Rights” 57
4.Identities 60
5.Differences 61
6.The “Virtual” Person and Personal Data 63
7.The Family at the Present Time 67
8.The De Facto Family 70
9.Family Unions 75
Ⅳ·Tradition Revisited: Ownership, Contract, Liability 77
1.Introduction 77
2.Ownership as a Polyhedral Concept 77
3.Ownership and Ownerships 81
4.Excursus Storico 82
a.Dominium Directum and Dominium Utile 82
b.The Modern Conception of Ownership: The Code Civil (1804) 83
c.The Unitary Conception of Ownership 85
d.Ownership and Ownerships 85
e.The Prevalence of Special Legislation 86
5.The Contract in Today's Society: The Factors of the Evolution of Contract Law 88
6.Judicial Control and the Rules of Jurisprudence 88
7.International Conventions and Praxes 89
8.The Significance of Sources of Hetero-regulation 90
9.New Praxes for Concluding the Contract 91
10.New Technologies 91
11.Beyond the Dogmas 92
12.The “Europeanization” of the Contract 94
13.Community Initiatives to Harmonize and Standardize Contract Law 95
14.The Harmonization of Contract Law 99
15.Civil Liability, Unlawful Act, Damages 99
16.The Traditional Model: “No Liability without Negligence,” “No Liability without Infringement of an Absolute Subjective Right” 101
Ⅴ·The Market 105
1.The Market and Its Rules 105
2.The Globalization of Economic Relations 107
3.Free Market and Competition 110
4.Community Law of Competition 112
5.Business Contracts, Rules and Normative Uses 115
6.From Classifications and General Categories to the Identification of Regulatory Techniques 118
Ⅵ·Difficult Cases 123
1.Introduction 123
2.The Civil System 123
3.State Liability for the Infringement of Community Law 127
4.The Notion of Consumer 128
5.Damage from Birth 131
6.Damage from Futile Medical Care 135
7.Same-sex Marriage 138
8.Acquisitive Occupation 138
9.Anatocism 142
10.The “Parmalat Case” 148
11.Harm Caused by Smoking 156
Conclusions 159
Index 163