Systemic Failure and Systemic Change in Private and Business Law: An Introduction

European private and business law has been able to maintain its foundational principles and structures intact, while rapidly reacting to and incorporating societal change. Time and again, profound crises have threatened the project of European integration. In hindsight, many of these challenges have furthered rather than derailed this project. However, the system of European private and business law will only be able to evolve if it is able to translate the mechanisms of social change into the language of the law. The task ahead is one for different areas of private and business law, from the law of contracts to company law, but it is also a task for a new theory and methodology of private law. Systemic Failure, System Building, European Private and Business Law, Global Financial Crisis, Climate Crisis, Stability, Evolution, Innovation, Disruption, Regulatory Competition