1. Junior Researcher, Amsterdam Institute of Private Law, Universiteit Van Amsterdam. Revised version of a paper presented at the 3rd International Workshop of Young Scholars (RIJC/WISH) held in September 2004 in Aix-en-Provence under the auspices of theEuropean Law Journaland CERIC. The author would like to express his gratitude to Professor Francis Snyder (Paul Cezanne University, Aix-en-Provence), Professor Martijn Hesselink (Amsterdam Institute of Private Law, University of Amsterdam), as well as Professor Tomasz Giaro and Dr Kathalin Gonczi (both from the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main) for reading and commenting on earlier versions of this paper. However, responsibility for all opinions expressed in the article, as well as any mistakes and omissions remains solely with the author.
2. Cfr. L. M. Friedman,Law and Society(Prentice Hall, 1977), p. 76; Snyder, 'General Course . . .',op. cit.note 1supra., at 138.
3. The idea of layers of legal culture is not new and has already been applied to analyse the constitutional (legal) culture in Europe, see F. Snyder, 'General Course . . .', pp. 138-139. The layers in Central European culture of private law and in (Western) European culture of constitutional law are of course different, although to some extent they coincide with each other.
4. Foundations of European Legal Culture