Financial regulation and private law remedies: an EU law perspective

Whilst the preoccupation of EU law with rights rather than remedies reflects well-established path dependencies, Union law has acquired, albeit selectively, a more assertive presence in the field of remedies. This is the result of both legislative action and judicial developments. This chapter discusses the rights – remedies distinction in EU law, assesses the prevailing model of hybridity and the principle of effectiveness, and attempts to classify EU measures depending on the extent to which they provide for private law remedies. It looks at the conditions under which implied rights of action may arise and explores the role of EU law in enhancing private law remedies, with a particular focus on financial law. It concludes that the absence of strong private remedies is not the result of a coherent, systematic analysis of the relative merits of public and private enforcement models but is dictated by the regulatory bias of the integration paradigm and a reluctance to intervene directly into the national law of obligations.