11. Financial Crises and European Private Law

Does private law play a role in the occurrence of financial crises, and how does it react and change in response to them? The chapter illustrates the relationship between private law and financial crises by looking at the constitutive role of law for finance, the impact of crises on private law relations, the ways in which the law can be used to mitigate the impact of crises on consumers, the relationship between financial regulation and contract, the reform of private law to achieve financial stability and, more fundamentally, the societal significance of financial crises for European private law itself: what do we expect from private law in a financialised society and how has the European private law project evolved since the last global crisis?