Towards a new ius commune?

The end of the Cold War and the integration of Europe

The end of the Cold War triggered an acceleration in the process of European integration. For France and Britain, the unification of Germany (1990) was only palatable if its power would be safely embedded within Europe. These countries feared they would be overshadowed by a strong and unified Germany and wanted to tie it down in the European structures. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty transformed the European Community into the European Union (EU). Apart from the traditional economic and monetary integration, steps were taken towards greater co-operation in the field of foreign policy, defence and justice. In the 1990s, a timeframe was established for the introduction of a single currency, which became a fact on 1 January 2002. Moreover, the collapse of the communist bloc paved the way for the expansion of the EU to the east. In 2004, ten new member states acceded to the EU, most of them former Eastern bloc countries; in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined. The rejection of the European constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005 put an – at least temporary – end to this period of accelerated integration and left the European Union facing an uncertain future. Nevertheless, Europe is today more a fact of life than it was before.

In the climate of renewed Euro-optimism in the 1990s and the early years of the twenty-first century, the idea of a unified European law made headway. This applies primarily to private law and much less to public law.