Private law and the energy commons
PLEC is the first to examine how the ‘Energy Commons’ wish to regulate themselves, where national private law poses unnecessary obstacles to these wishes, and how such obstacles could be removed. The Energy Commons are self-governing projects set up by local communities to jointly produce renewable energy. They are vital to the energy transition in the EU, providing urgently needed renewable energy. As current research shows, national private law may conflict with the wishes of the Energy Commons, deterring their contribution to the energy transition.
PLEC will use an innovative empirically-based approach to uncover how the Energy Commons wish to regulate themselves. Through interviews in two German and two Italian Energy Commons, PLEC will determine the decisions taken by Energy Commons. Doctrinal legal research will show which decisions are subject to their national private law. A questionnaire will show how the Energy Commons wish to regulate those decisions. 
Doctrinal legal research will uncover where German or Italian private law conflicts with the rules made by the Energy Commons and, to determine whether such obstacles are unnecessary, whether a deviation from conflicting private law according to the needs of the Energy Commons would contravene public interests pursued by that private law. Comparative legal research will show whether solutions from the other country may help remove unnecessary obstacles from, respectively, German or Italian law, and provide a legal toolkit for other countries.
At Turin University, the researcher, with broad experience in private law and empirical research, will benefit from extensive expertise on Commons and empirical methods and the gE.CO (H2020-SC6_CSA)-project’s comprehensive network and the supervision by its Coordinator. PLEC will be essential to law-makers, legal practitioners, and representatives of Energy Commons for insights on how private law reform can facilitate the energy transition.