The implementation of EU private law is not only influenced by the institutional and procedural framework outlined above in part VII. Of equal significance is the range of accepted arguments and intellectual operations carried out by a court, which are usually summarised under the heading of legal method; they will be treated in this part VIII. Legal methods are meant to bridge the gap between the abstract legal rule and its application to a specific fact situation. They are mirrored by the reasons given by a court for its decision, reasons needed, in addition to the authority of the court, for conferring legitimacy on the decision regarding a dispute. They transpose the binding force of the abstract legal rule, as flowing from its adoption in the legislative procedures prescribed by the Treaties, to the judgment of the court.

A court’s judgment may sometimes be clearly “right” or “wrong” in most cases, however, these are not the proper attributes of a judicial decision since the law rarely yields unambiguous conclusions. Where the judicial activity is carried out as an impartial assessment of the pros and cons of the parties’ allegations in the light of the applicable laws, it may still generate different outcomes, depending on the methods employed. The objective pursued cannot therefore be the absolute rightness of the decision but, with greater modesty, its recognition as acceptable or reasonable and, thereby, as legitimate. The achievement of this objective is, inter alia , furthered by a discursive manner of reasoning in what has been called a creative process, which in turn involves a reflection on, and a comprehensive use of, legal methods.

Legal methods comprise several intellectual operations conducted prior to the ruling on a case. In EU private law, it is necessary, first, to clarify and specify the meaning of rules and principles in the circumstances of the case. Second, the interpretation of the applicable law may lead to the ascertainment of a lacuna which somehow has to be dealt with. A third step consists in the application of the resulting rules to the individual case.