Harmonization of European Civil Procedural Law

The European Union (EU) has adopted several legal instruments bearing on the procedural private law of the Member States. Some of these instruments are binding, while others are only optional. Recent proposals by the European Law Institute (ELI), UNIDROIT and other institutions working in the area of legal harmonization aim to achieve a comprehensive system of common rules in this respect in the European area within a world framework. The EU institutions have been receptive to these proposals and they are at present studying the feasibility of drafting new legislative initiatives in this respect. This paper overviews these proposals and points to the constitutional difficulties that the EU law-making bodies face in the harmonization process due to the weakness of their legal bases.