Reich, and marked the Federal Republic's sensibility in relation to economic policy as Ordnungspolitik. In the course of European integration, ordo-liberalism became the German dominant theory, with a peculiar double meaning for both components of the term: it dominated among professors of economic law and in many unofficial and officious policy statements; but the practice of law and of politics looked different. 8 The same holds true for the Community and its law: The 'four freedoms guaranteed in the eEC treaty, the opening up of the national economies, the bans on discrimination and the competition rules, were understood as a'decision' in favour of an economic constitution which met the conceptions of the ordo-liberal school with regard to the framework cond itions for a competitive market system. And the very fact that Europe was set in motion as a mere economic community conferred plausibility on the ordo-liberal argument: through the interpretation of the economic law provisions in the EEC Treaty as a legally established order committed to guaranteeing economic freedoms, the Community gained a legitimacy of its own, which was independent of the institutions of the democratic constitutional state, and from which legally bind ing policy commitments of this Community followed. 0 This was a framework which left room for alternatives. For many years, in fact, until the intenal market programmes of 1985 and the Single European Act of 1987, private law was left to itself. In the course of these initiatives, the legal principle of mutual recognition was discovered for private law, thus establishing the hope that the mechanisms of regulatory competition would promote an feconomic'rationalisation of private law in Europe. 2 At any rate, a European code of private law was also envisaged in the early 1990s. 3 The newest version of this idea is now, however Europe, Working Paper No. 00.3, Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2000 7 Again(see note 1 supra)a notion which tends to lose its meaning in translation. Economi govemancethetermusedinpertinentdocumentsoftheEuropeancOnventionwebsite(<http:european neuint>)may be as close as one can get Cf, for example, Ch Joerges, The Market without a State? States without Markets? Two Essays on the Law of the European Economy, EUI Working Paper Law 1/96, San Domenico di Fiesole 1996 (http:/leiop.orat/eiop/texte/1997-019a.htm>,shttp:/leiop.orat/eiop/texte/1997-020.htm>);goodGovernance in the European Internal Market: Two Competing Legal Conceptualisation of European Integration and their Synthesis, in: A. v, Bogdandy, P C. Mavroides and Y, Meny(eds ) European Integration and International Co ordination: Studies in Transnational Economic Law in Honour of Claus-Dieter Ehlermann, Den Haag/London/New York: Kluwer Law Intermational2002219 ff. were then to be understood as mere exceptions from the governing ordo E Admittedly, the many im portant policy fields exempted from Ord nungspolitik in the EEC Treaties Particularly significant, here, is A. Muller-Armack, Die Wirtschaftsordnung des Gemeinsamen Marktes, in: id, Wirtschaftsordnung und Wirtschaftspolitik, Freiburg i Br: Rombach 1966, 401 ff. Or more or less decisively preserved itself against relevant early special statutory private law (sonderprivatrechtliche)projects, which existed from the mid-1970s onward(and fit in with the picture sketched out here; cf. Ch Joerges, Zielsetzungen und Instrumentarien der Europaischen Verbraucherrechtspolitik. Eine Analyse von Entwicklungen im Bereich des Zivilrechts, Zeitschriftfuir Verbraucherpolitik3(1979),213 ff, cf. B Bomer, Die Produkthaftung oder das vergessene Gemeinschaftsrecht in: W.G. Grewe(ed ) Europaische Gerichtsbarkeit und nationale Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Hans Kutscher, Baden-Baden: Nomos 1981, 43 ff. For an official position, see Wissenschaftlicher Beirat beim Bundesm inisterium fur Wirtschaft Stellungnahme zum WeiBbuch der EG-Kommission uiber den Binnenmarkt( Schriften-Reihe 51), Bonn 198 Cf, in particular, E.-. Mestmacker, Die Wiederkehr der burgerlichen Gesellschaft und ihres Rechts Rechtshistorisches ournal10(1991), 177., 190 ff.; w. Tilmann, Eine Privatrechtskodifikation fur die Europaische Gemeinschaft, in: P.-Ch. Muller-Graff(ed. ) Gemeinsames Privatrecht in der europaischerReich, and marked the Federal Republic’s sensibility in relation to economic policy as Ordnungspolitik. 7 In the course of European integration, ordo-liberalism became the German ‘dominant theory’, with a peculiar double meaning for both components of the term: it ‘dominated’ among professors of economic law and in many unofficial and officious policy statements; but the practice of law and of politics looked different.8 The same holds true for the Community and its law: The ‘four freedoms’ guaranteed in the EEC Treaty, the opening up of the national economies, the bans on discrimination and the competition rules, were understood as a ‘decision’ in favour of an economic constitution which met the conceptions of the ordo-liberal school with regard to the framework conditions for a competitive market system.9 And the very fact that Europe was set in motion as a mere economic community conferred plausibility on the ordo-liberal argument: through the interpretation of the economic law provisions in the EEC Treaty as a legally established order committed to guaranteeing economic freedoms, the Community gained a legitimacy of its own, which was independent of the institutions of the democratic constitutional state, and from which legally binding policy commitments of this Community followed.10 This was a framework which left room for alternatives. For many years, in fact, until the internal market programmes of 1985 and the Single European Act of 1987, private law was left to itself.11 In the course of these initiatives, the legal principle of mutual recognition was discovered for private law, thus establishing the hope that the mechanisms of regulatory competition would promote an ‘economic’ rationalisation of private law in Europe.12 At any rate, a European code of private law was also envisaged in the early 1990s.13 The newest version of this idea is now, however, Europe, Working Paper No. 00.3, Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2000. 7 Again (see note 1 supra) a notion which tends to lose its meaning in translation. ‘Economic governance’, the term used in pertinent documents of the European Convention website (<http://european￾convention.eu.int>) may be as close as one can get. 8 Cf., for example, Ch. Joerges, The Market without a State? States without Markets? Two Essays on the Law of the European Economy, EUI Working Paper Law 1/96, San Domenico di Fiesole 1996 (<http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/1997-019a.htm>; <http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/1997-020.htm>); ‘Good Governance’ in the European Internal Market: Two Competing Legal Conceptualisation of European Integration and their Synthesis, in: A. v. Bogdandy, P.C. Mavroides and Y. Mény (eds.), European Integration and International Co￾ordination: Studies in Transnational Economic Law in Honour of Claus-Dieter Ehlermann, Den Haag/London/New York: Kluwer Law International 2002, 219 ff. 9 Admittedly, the many important policy fields exempted from Ordnungspolitik in the EEC Treaties were then to be understood as mere exceptions from the governing ordo. 10 Particularly significant, here, is A. Müller-Armack, Die Wirtschaftsordnung des Gemeinsamen Marktes, in: id., Wirtschaftsordnung und Wirtschaftspolitik, Freiburg i.Br.: Rombach 1966, 401 ff. 11 Or more or less decisively preserved itself against relevant early ‘special statutory private law’ (sonderprivatrechtliche) projects, which existed from the mid-1970s onward (and fit in with the picture sketched out here; cf. Ch. Joerges, Zielsetzungen und Instrumentarien der Europäischen Verbraucherrechtspolitik. Eine Analyse von Entwicklungen im Bereich des Zivilrechts, Zeitschrift für Verbraucherpolitik 3 (1979), 213 ff.; cf. B. Börner, Die Produkthaftung oder das vergessene Gemeinschaftsrecht, in: W.G. Grewe (ed.), Europäische Gerichtsbarkeit und nationale Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Hans Kutscher, Baden-Baden: Nomos 1981, 43 ff. 12 For an official position, see Wissenschaftlicher Beirat beim Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft, Stellungnahme zum Weißbuch der EG-Kommission über den Binnenmarkt (Schriften-Reihe 51), Bonn 1986. 13 Cf., in particular, E.-J. Mestmäcker, Die Wiederkehr der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft und ihres Rechts, Rechtshistorisches Journal 10 (1991), 177 ff., 190 ff.; W. Tilmann, Eine Privatrechtskodifikation für die Europäische Gemeinschaft, in: P.-Ch. Müller-Graff (ed.), Gemeinsames Privatrecht in der Europäischen