Financial regulation and civil liability in European law: towards a more coordinated approach?

The interplay between financial regulation and civil liability in the legal order of the European Union provided the theme for the book entitled ‘Financial Regulation and Civil Liability in European Law’. This framing chapter presents the research design and major findings of this book project, mapping and analysing the original assessments by the contributing authors. In particular, it examines whether there is a coordinated approach to EU financial regulation and civil liability across (a) different sectors of financial services and activities, such as payments, credit, and securities, and (b) the various actors involved in public, private, and hybrid enforcement, such as courts, alternative dispute resolution bodies, and financial regulators. Further, it outlines directions for cross-sector and cross-actor coordination to develop more fully at EU and national level. Overall, the chapter highlights the need to fundamentally rethink the role of civil liability, and private law remedies more generally, as a regulatory and compensatory tool in European financial law, and sets out an analytical framework – with both theoretical and empirical components – for further inquiry.