This article explores the role of the public/private divide within EU private law. It shows that although EU private law cuts across the boundaries of public and private law, the conceptual distinction between these well‐established categories does matter within it and may lead to better law‐making in the EU more generally. The legal grammar of a particular EU harmonisation measure—which can be more “public” or “private”—may have important implications for the position of private parties at national level, for the CJEU's likely activism in this context, and ultimately for the measure's ability to realise its policy goals. Therefore, instead of ignoring the existing differences between public and private law, EU law should explicitly adopt the public/private law language in its discourse, without, however, introducing any sharp divide between these two areas.

中文翻译：

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重新发现欧盟私法中的公共/私人鸿沟

本文探讨了欧盟私法中公私分立的作用。它表明，尽管欧盟私法跨越了公法和私法的界限，但这些行之有效的类别之间的概念区别在其中确实很重要，并且可能会导致欧盟范围内更好的立法。欧盟特定协调措施的法律语法可能更“公开”或“私有”，这可能会对私人团体在国家一级的立场，欧洲法院在这种情况下可能采取的行动以及最终对该措施的影响产生重大影响。实现其政策目标的能力。因此，欧盟法律不应忽略公法与私法之间的现有差异，而应在其论述中明确采用公法/私法语言，但是，