To function optimally, a legal system must be coherent. This means that its rules and norms must logically relate to each other: they should not be contradictory or needlessly complicated. Thus, coherence makes the law predictable and judicial decisions acceptable. Coherence is, therefore, an essential value for any legal system, especially for private law. However, the coherence of private law is constantly tested by both internal and external challenges.

Constructing and reconstructing the Civil Code

The coherence of national private law systems is increasingly put to the test by a plethora of guidelines, regulations, treaties, codes and other sources of law other than national private law. The Dutch Civil Code (DCC), for instance, is constantly ‘under construction’, often because of international developments. Thus, important sections of the DCC have been changed and become binding in nature because of European law, which has raised new questions of application and interpretation.

Climate change and technology

In the fight against climate change, also private law is expected to play a significant role. For instance, liability claims have already been initiated against governments, but also against oil companies and banks. Moreover, the current system of private law is expected to handle technological innovations such as AI and digital assets; can Bitcoin, for example, be transferred as one transfers a bicycle or a car?

• Is our private law system flexible enough to meet societal expectations without losing its coherence?
• How do legislators and judges address these coherence issues?

These are the questions that keep the researchers of the research programme Coherent Private Law busy.

Dutch Sector Plan

The research programme Coherent Private Law shows a clear connection with two themes of the Dutch National Sector Plan Law: the theme  Empirical Legal Studies and the theme Institutions for Conflict Resolution. Within the first theme, Leiden has chosen 'markets, behaviour and the regulatory role of the law' as a starting point to further develop empirical legal research, in the second Leiden focuses on how the judiciary can prevent and solve societal problems.

Background

The current research programme Coherent Private Law has its roots in the programme Vraagstukken van vermogensrecht (Issues of Property Law) (1997-2008). Several researchers of the research programme Coherent Private Law worked within the university research profile Interaction between Legal Systems (2011-2020), which examined the cross-links and interactions between different areas of law and different "layers" of the legal order.

Institutional structure

The researchers of the research programme Coherent Private Law are mainly based in the Institute of Private Law. This Institute consists of the departments of civil law (where research is conducted with respect to civil law, civil procedure law and private international law), child law, notarial law and company law (company law/insolvency law, intellectual property law and financial law (Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law)). In addition, members of the departments of legal history of the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Law, and of business studies and economy of the Institute of Tax Law and Economics are involved.

• interaction between legal systems
• private law

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