instance, as the end result of a competition, in which each legal system provides different rules for the resolution of a specific problem. In a market of legal culture where rule suppliers seek to satisfy demand, ultimately, the most efficient rule will prove to be the winner. An example is the concept of trust, originally an anglo- American legal concept, which is increasingly used in continental Europe, because it offers more possibilities, e.g. limited property protection by circumventing the continental numerus clausus of rights in rem, than can be achieved by continental concepts. In continental law, one has to fall back, as a rule, on contract law, which creates only rights in personam. That the buyers' in the marketplace now have mostly opted for the trust is also evidenced by the existence of the 1985 Hague Covention on the law applicable to trusts and their recognition, which, incidentally, is an unnecessary private international law formality, in my view It is a rule of Law and Economics that a correct choice can only be made if all necessary information is available. This also holds true in this instance: if one is not familiar with all the legal rules available, it will not be possible for the most efficient rule to come out on top The more positivist the legal system and the more nationalist the country, the less efficient the law. Those who think that state-imposed law and state recognized judge-made law are the only positive law are not able, when having to resolve a concrete dispute, to benefit from rules laid down elsewhere 5. Towards a Mixed Legal System of European Private Law What lessons can be learnt from the above with regard to the development of a European private law? One very important lesson, in my view: one of the effects of the process of legal development described immediately above is that the ultimate result will be unification: if the legal marketplace functions well, one rule will eventually be singled out by the buyers as the best. We may not be aware of this, but the fact that in the majority of European countries private law is now already more or less uniform, is also the result of this process. The traditional ius commune, which those adhering to European private law like to evoke, originated in exactly the same way, rather than by aving been mandatorily imposed by a centralist national authority. That precisely the position of English law is different, is the result of the insular position which this country has always had I argue that this natural" process of reception should run its course. If trade partners, judges and others involved in shaping private law relations, such as attorneys and trade organizations, are capable of making a choice from the largest possible array of solutions, then, through trial and error, eventually the best rule will triumph. In the most dynamic area of the law, contract law, the process has virtually been concluded:it is significant that the Lando Commission was able to formulate principles which were generally approved of by scholars and practitioners. By taking this path, European Mattei, op. cit at 8 and Ugo Mattei and Francesco Pulitini, A Competitive Model of Legal Rules, in Breton et al.(eds ) The Competitive State, (Dordrecht, 1991), 207 ff. Cf also Mattei, Efficiency., op cit, 9 and 10 Error! bookmark not definedError! Bookmark not defined. instance, as the end result of a competition, in which each legal system provides different rules for the resolution of a specific problem. In a `market of legal culture', where rule suppliers seek to satisfy demand, ultimately, the most efficient rule will prove to be the winner.41 An example is the concept of `trust', originally an Anglo￾American legal concept, which is increasingly used in continental Europe, because it offers more possibilities, e.g. limited property protection by circumventing the continental numerus clausus of rights in rem, than can be achieved by continental concepts. In continental law, one has to fall back, as a rule, on contract law, which creates only rights in personam. That the `buyers' in the marketplace now have mostly opted for the trust is also evidenced by the existence of the 1985 Hague Convention on the law applicable to trusts and their recognition, which, incidentally, is an unnecessary private international law formality, in my view.42 It is a rule of Law and Economics that a correct choice can only be made if all necessary information is available. This also holds true in this instance: if one is not familiar with all the legal rules available, it will not be possible for the most efficient rule to come out on top. The more positivist the legal system and the more nationalist the country, the less efficient the law. Those who think that state-imposed law and state￾recognized judge-made law are the only positive law are not able, when having to resolve a concrete dispute, to benefit from rules laid down elsewhere. 5. Towards a Mixed Legal System of European Private Law What lessons can be learnt from the above with regard to the development of a European private law? One very important lesson, in my view: one of the effects of the process of legal development described immediately above is that the ultimate result will be unification: if the legal marketplace functions well, one rule will eventually be singled out by the `buyers' as the best. We may not be aware of this, but the fact that in the majority of European countries private law is now already more or less uniform, is also the result of this process. The traditional ius commune, which those adhering to a European private law like to evoke, originated in exactly the same way, rather than by having been mandatorily imposed by a centralist national authority. That precisely the position of English law is different, is the result of the insular position which this country has always had. I argue that this `natural' process of reception should run its course. If trade partners, judges and others involved in shaping private law relations, such as attorneys and trade organizations, are capable of making a choice from the largest possible array of solutions, then, through trial and error, eventually the best rule will triumph. In the most dynamic area of the law, contract law, the process has virtually been concluded: it is significant that the Lando Commission was able to formulate principles which were generally approved of by scholars and practitioners. By taking this path, European 41 Mattei, op. cit., at 8 and Ugo Mattei and Francesco Pulitini, `A Competitive Model of Legal Rules', in Breton et al. (eds.), The Competitive State, (Dordrecht, 1991), 207 ff. 42 Cf. also Mattei, `Efficiency....', op. cit., 9 and 10