Reimagining private law is a central endeavour at ACT, and spans across all the research lines. First, we seek to understand the transformation of private law itself, caused in part by changing functions of basic private law institutions (for example parenthood, marriage, party autonomy, collective redress, legal personhood, property, finance). We also consider changes in prevailing methods as well as private law’s normative (re)orientations. In this context, we pay specific attention to the effects of Europeanisation and globalisation on rules of (domestic) private law and the emergence of new understandings and justifications of the field. Our work, thus, includes the identification of gaps in legal protection due to the misalignment of norms deriving from national, European, and transnational levels of governance, amongst others in relation to new developments, such as digitalisation or a growing collective dimension of private law.

Second, we explore private law’s impact on, and constitutive role in, shaping societal questions and problems, amidst rising inequalities and an ever more acute environmental crisis. Adopting a range of methods, we propose alternative ways of thinking about the roles, aims and effects of private law in society. At ACT, we seek to anticipate, and further articulate, the emerging trends and (re)imaginations of private law, with a view to help contribute to achieving societal goals and, most broadly, to the transition towards more sustainable and just economy and society.