Primary EU Law and Private Autonomy

The starting point for the present research is the fact that the FEU Treaty provisions on free movement may directly apply to relationships between private parties, creating rights and obligations between them. The expansion of the scope of application of the free movement provisions to the conduct of private parties has not been met by an extension of the catalogue of justification grounds. Under the current regime, the free movement provisions may be legitimately derogated from only on public interest grounds. The view has been expressed in several quarters that a justification framework so conceived is not suited to meet the legitimate interests of private parties, which in their course of business do not primarily pursue public policy goals or general interest objectives. Against this background, the research explores the possibility of expanding the justification framework of EU free movement law, to include legitimate interest of a private nature. More particularly, it investigates whether such an expansion of the catalogue of justification grounds would be desirable; whether it would effectively protect the autonomy of private parties; and whether it would be coherent with the scheme of EU free movement law.