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Combating unlawfully gained profits using Private Law mechanisms in Europe (Unlawful Profits)
Start date: Oct 1, 2010, End date: Sep 30, 2012 PROJECT  FINISHED 

“This Court never allows a man to make profit by a wrong”. Unfortunately, this famous statement from Lord Hatherly in Jegon v. Vivian (1870-1871) (Law Reports Chancery Appeal Cases VI, p. 742, 761) is nowadays no more than a wish and does not reflect the present day reality. As a matter of fact, the tortfeasor can often keep his unlawfully gained profits (e.g. the tortfeasor cannot be detected, no sufficient provisions for claiming damages exist, rational apathy of the injured person etc.) which can run up to immense sums and lead to inefficient markets. The research project ultimately wants to find the most efficient Private Law instruments for combating these unlawfully gained profits and thus enhance the efficiency of the markets for the following sectors: Intellectual Property Law, Unfair Competition Law, Antitrust Law and finally Capital Market Law. In order to reach this goal the research project makes use of the Acquis Communautaire approach, Comparative Law approach, Law and Economics and Behavioural Science and Law. To reach this goal the scholar first needs to detect the situations in which unlawfully gained profits remain with the wrongdoer; followed by an appraisal of all Private Law instruments (as e.g. collective actions or skimming-off procedures) existing at the European and national level combating unlawfully gained profits (Acquis Communautaire and Comparative Law approach). As a third step, the existing inefficiencies of the European and national Private Law mechanisms will be detected (Law and Economics) and as the penultimate step, the practical application of these instruments (Behavioural Science and Law) will be analysed. Under consideration of all findings from the aforementioned research methods and approaches the proposed project then wants, as a final research objective, to make concrete proposals for better legislating in the field of research at European and national level.
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