Hugh Collins (ed.), European Contract Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights * Review by Luca Ettore PERRIELLO ** This edited collection hosts several contributions by renowned scholars addressing the impact of fundamental rights and freedoms, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU), on European contract law. While the relation between fundamental rights and national legal systems has been thoroughly explored, the relation between fundamental rights and European contract law has thus far remained uncharted territory. The authors investigate the classical issue of the effects (vertical or horizontal, direct or indirect) of fundamental rights in private disputes, yet without losing sight of the problematic implications of specific rights, such as the right to housing, the right to access to consumer credit, the right to be treated equally at work. They all cast doubt on a formalistic notion of party autonomy, which is related to a concept of private law as a self-standing, trans-political, self-correcting and time- tested system. On the contrary, once it has been established that the CFREU has the same legal value as the Treaties (Art. 6, Treaty on European Union), it appears no longer possible to separate the private law discourse from fundamental rights. However, the extent these two discourses intersect with each other is still a matter of discussion, and some contributors in this book voice concerns for a complete consti- tutionalization of European private law. For its part, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not made things easier, for it has constantly refused to take a stance on the CFREU’s effects vis-à-vis private parties. Hugh Collins, editor of the book, sets the scene with an overview chapter. He firstly points out the idiosyncrasies in the relation between the CFREU and EU contract law. The European Union lacks a constitutional court, akin to the courts of several Member States, entrusted with the protection of a European constitution, which does not exist either. The Treaties seem to be more concerned with creating a single market than with establishing a political and social community. The EU’s powers are limited to those which the Member States conferred upon it in the Treaties. Member States claim general sovereignty to enforce fundamental rights in domestic contract laws. This unique framework has taken its toll on the impact of the CFREU on private law. While it is unlikely that the CFREU be given a direct horizontal effect – that is, an individual or business could bring an action directly based on a fundamental right, without the medium of a private law institution – it might be the * Cambridge-Antwerp-Portland: Intersentia, 2017, 290 p. ** Postdoctoral Researcher in Private Law, University of Salerno. Email: leperriello@gmail.com. European Review of Private Law 4-2018 [581–586] © 2018 Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands. 581