Hayek in Brussels. Uniform Private Law and Neo-Liberal Orthodoxy

This chapter offers a critical reflection on the notion of uniform law and harmonisation. In recent times, the issue of the uniformization of law, which has been the core of long-standing and lively debates, has drawn the attention of comparative lawyers concerned with reflecting critically on globalisation. After an initial phase characterised by a favourable approach toward this phenomenon, which was inspired, in many respects, by such ideals as the intent to foster a widespread recognition of fundamental rights and the dialogue between and amongst different peoples, it has been increasingly stigmatised for its ability to bring about a dangerous homologation of all spheres in which the typical encroachments of that phenomenon occur: political, economic and cultural. On this issue, it has been argued that it may be advisable to overcome ethnocentric visions of law as a phenomenon, and to take the issue of identity protection as an inspiring reason for making comparisons. In more general terms, many have advocated abandoning the paradigms inherited from modernity, which focus more on what unites the objects of comparison, in favour of paradigms which are suitable for highlighting what differentiates them, instead.