Procedural Convergence in Competition Law: Towards a Spontaneous Ius Commune?

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Anna Gerbrandy, University of Utrecht exploresProcedural Convergence in Competition Law: Towards a Spontaneous Ius Commune?

ABSTRACT: In this article I will address the question of whether substantive statutory convergence, by which is meant that national statutory law holds norms that are substantively the same as European law norms, is followed by spontaneous procedural convergence. This question will be addressed in focusing on Dutch competition law, which is substantively the same as EC competition law. This means that at the statutory level there is substantive convergence, but not necessarily statutory procedural convergence. Following a general assumption that procedural law is shaped by substantive law, the expectation may be that the statutory substantive convergence in Dutch competition law will give rise to procedural convergence at the level of the courts. Though this article focuses on the influence of European procedural law on national Dutch court proceedings, its findings have a wider relevance, because of the implications these findings may have on the thesis of a general developing procedural ius commune.