Recodification of private law in the Slovak Republic and its perspectives

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RECODIFICATION OF PRIVATE LAW IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC AND ITS PERSPECTIVES

Doc. JUDr. Denisa Dulakovд Jakьbekovд,

PhD, Institute of Private Law of the Pan-European University

The article discusses the process of recodification of private law in the Slovak Republic, which - in contrast with other post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe - still has not been amended into a new, modern and complex legal regulation. Despite the declared efforts of every new government, to this day, none of them have achieved a recodification of civil law that would finally result into an unambiguous treatment of esp. the so-called questions of values; and neither have any of them seen through the creation of a codex that has long been required.

The first time the need for a recodification became apparent was even before the November 1989 Revolution, i. e. during the era of socialist Czechoslovakia. However, those discussions were broken up by the aforementioned revolution, which introduced a completely new set of expectations for the form of a universal civil code, as well as private law in general. The socialist era only saw a very narrow regulation of private legal relations, one built on a so-called narrow conceptualization, which in short meant that private legal relations were regulated by individual laws, specifically by the Civil Code, Economic Code and the Code of International Trade, while each of these were bound to a specific type of material and personal relations - all outdated as a result of the revolution. Therefore, logically, the focus of the expert public post-revolution fell on filling the legal vacuum that came about through the abolition of the Economic Code and the Code of International Trade, and on substituting these via a new equivalent legal regulation. Due to time constraints and the urgent need for a solution of the given situation, the country failed to adopt a single universal regulation of private law; instead, the so-called major amendment of the previous Civil Code was adopted. This amendment changed a substantial part of the Civil Code, as well as parts of the Commercial code, which was primarily focused on entrepreneurial matters.

This state since prevails, which means that Slovakia's legal system is still subjected to a Civil Code from the year 1964, as amended at several occasions, and the Commercial Code from the year 1991. This is despite the numerous attempts made at recodification of private law - with both moderate to higher levels of success. slovak republic private law recodification

The last attempt at reforming private law was introduced to the public at the end of 2018, the form of this reform was, however, surprising. The new recodification committee created a proposal that does not attempt to change the whole of private law, but only its contractual part, while the committee has labeled this as only the first phase of a general recodification. There has been a change in governments in Slovakia in 2020, while the new government has, to date, declared other priorities in the domain of justice (including the rebuilding the citizens' trust in law, justice and the judicial system). It is therefore yet difficult to say whether the new government will adopt the ambition to recodify private law, and if so, to what extent it will succeed at completing this goal.

Key words: recodification, private law, Slovak Republic.

У статті йдеться про процес рекодифікування приватного права у Словацькій Республіці, у якій, на відміну від інших постсоціалістичних країн Центральної та Східної Європи, воно досі не змінене на нове, сучасне й складне правове регулювання. Незважаючи на задекларовані зусилля кожного нового уряду, до цього часу жоден із них не провів рекодифікацію цивільного законодавства, що призводить до неоднозначного тлумачення так званих «питань цінностей (інститутів)».

Потреба в рекодифікації стала очевидною ще до листопадової революції 1989 року, тобто в епоху соціалістичної Чехословаччини. Однак ці дискусії були розірвані вищезгаданою революцією, яка привела до абсолютно нового набору очікувань щодо цивільного законодавства, а також приватного права загалом. Епоха соціалізму бачила лише дуже вузьке регулювання приватноправових відносин, побудоване на так званій вузькій концептуалізації. Це означало, що приватні правовідносини регулюються окремими законами, зокрема Цивільним кодексом, Господарським кодексом та Кодексом міжнародної торгівлі. Логічно, що в цій ситуації фокус експертної громадської рекодифікації був зосереджений на заповненні правового вакууму, який виник через скасування Господарського кодексу та Кодексу міжнародної торгівлі, і на заміні їх новим рівноцінним правовим регулюванням. Через часові обмеження та нагальну потребу у вирішенні цієї ситуації країна не змогла прийняти єдине універсальне регулювання приватного права, натомість було прийнято так звану основну поправку до попереднього Цивільного кодексу. Ця поправка змінила значну частину Цивільного кодексу, а також певні положення Господарського кодексу, які були зосереджені насамперед на підприємницьких питаннях.

Зазначені зміни діють дотепер. Це означає, що правова система Словаччини досі реалізує правове регулювання Цивільним кодексом 1964 року (який декілька разів доповнювався та змінювався), незважаючи на численні спроби рекодифікації приватного права (різного рівня успішності).

Остання спроба реформування приватного права була представлена громадськості наприкінці 2018 року. Форма реформи була досить дивною: новий комітет із рекодифікації виніс пропозицію про зміну не всього приватного права, а лише його договірної частини, і назвав це лише першим етапом загальної рекодифікації.

У 2020 році відбулася зміна політичних еліт Словаччини, новий уряд визначив на сьогодні інші пріоритети у сфері правосуддя (у тому числі відновлення довіри громадян до права, справедливості та судової системи). У цьому контексті важко сказати, чи прагнутиме новий уряд до рекодифікації приватного права, і якщо так, то наскільки вдасться досягти цієї мети.

Ключові слова: рекодифікація, приватне право, Словацька Республіка.

Introduction. The need to recodify private law extends, in terms of timeframe, beyond the existence of the Slovak Republic, since the first efforts to create a new modern civil code date back to the common Czechoslovak state, and even further, to the pre- November 1989 era, when Czechoslovakia witnessed a momentous change in the societal and political affairs. Despite many attempts and specific activities within the Slovak Republic, and in contrast with the Czech Republic, this recodification process has to date not been completed.

1. Current state of the Civil Code

Since 1964, private law in the Slovak Republic has been governed by the basic and general regulation of the Civil Code of 1964, i. e. Art. № 40/1964 Cc and its later regulations (further only referred to as “Civil Code”).

Throughout its existence, it has been amended more than 60 times, while it is worth mentioning than only four of the total amendments were accepted prior to 1989 (Articles № 58/1969 Zb., 131/1982 Zb., 94/1988 Zb., 188/1988 Zb.).

The Amendment of the Civil Code, Art. № 509/1991 Cc is considered to be of specific importance, as it essentially changed, or amend, approximately 80% of the original text of the Civil Code [9]. Despite its essential nature, the amendment did not manage to deal effectively with the ambiguity caused by the previous forty years of development of the so-called socialist private law. Latter amendments may have, in part, fixed these shortcomings, however, the amended changes lacked a set of unifying concept criteria. This was reflected in the applications of novelties and modern elements, which were introduced out of a current need to react to the external conditions rather than out of a need to make the law into an organic unit (this was especially apparent at the time of transposition of directives dedicated to customer protection).

2. The progression of previous recodification works

The discussions about conceptual questions, functionality and effectivity of the Civil Code and its relation to separate legal regulations began even prior to the socio-political changes brought about by 1989, i. e. in a time when the Civil Code was restricted to a very narrow material scope, defined by the conditions and requirements of the current material and cultural needs of the citizens. Further aspects of material and personal relations were regulated by individual regulations - esp. the Economic Code (Art. № 109/1964 Cc), International Trade Code (Art. № 65/1965 Cc), the Labor Code (Art. № 65/1965 Cc) and the Family Code (Art. № 94/1963 Cc). The aforementioned laws, with the exception of the Family Code, were not explicitly linked to the Civil Code and as a result, a significant separation between the individual material and personal relationships, and well as an atomization of the whole private law system, ensued.

It was therefore logical that in the primary considerations of the recodification of private law, which were inevitable after the year 1989, the main aim of all involved experts focused on filling the legal void created by the abolition of the Economic Code and Labor Code, instead of on removing the conceptual shortcomings of private law as a whole, or on adoption of a brand new Civil Code (this particular solution was not popular due to the time strain the experts experienced in their work). As a result, the aforementioned so-called major amendment of the Civil Code (Art. № 509/1991 Cc) and a new Commercial Code (Art. № 513/1991 Cc) was adopted, which, on one hand, signified a positive and necessary step in transforming of private law to the needs of the new market economy, yet, from a longterm perspective, was not viewed as a conceptual solution.

In the subsequent years, academic discussions were held among legal theorists and practitioners alike. These had the advantages - in contrast with the years immediately following the year 1989 - of experience that resulted from creating, implementing and applying of law within the framework of a market economy, which in turn resulted in a more developed degree of critical thinking.

The `real recodification' of the Civil Code in the Slovak Republic began in 1996, when a commission, led by Professor Karol Plank, was established to prepare the new Civil Code. This commission worked under extraordinary time pressure caused by the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic itself - it expected a new draft of the Civil Code to be delivered by the commission in a paragraph version in the very same calendar year (!); the expected deadline being set for October. “It was an unrealistic expectation that put the head of the commission in an unenviable position. There was no time for a discussion or deeper analyses. After delivering the first draft in 1997, the members of the recodification committee never gathered again” [10]. After his death, Prof. Plank was replaced as head of committee by Prof. Lazar. Under his leadership, the committee created a second draft of the Civil Code in 1998, but this version only amended or completed the previous draft. Despite the fact that this draft had not been subjected to a wider expert discussion either, it was approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic (in 1998). The expert public raised serious objections against the draft [8], which, combined with political and personal changes at the corresponding ministries, resulted in the draft not being picked up again, and it was withdrawn from the legislative process. “Unfortunately <...> the recodification of private law is influenced by politics to the extent that they not only affect the start and speed of work on the codex, but its evaluation as well” ' [7].

Legislative work began again in 1999 under the expert guidance of Professor Peter Vojcik and the recodification efforts were allowed to begin. Although this committee completed their role and the government of the Slovak Republic approved the legislative intent of the Civil Code it was presented with, in 2002, the political will to continue further works on a paragraph version of the codex with a deadline in 2005 had not been found again.

After the next election, legislative works ceased for a whole electoral period (no minister of justice at the time considered the recodification of private law their priority).

In November 2006 (again, shortly after a new parliamentary election) the then Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic, Stefan Harabin, named the previous head of the recodification committee, Prof. Lazar, to lead the body again. Subsequently, in January 2007, a new recodification committee was established and was tasked - as expressed in the coalition plan of the then government for the time period 2006-2010 - to develop a draft of the law on material private law (Civil Code) by the first quarter of 2010, with the ultimate goal being a recodification of private law in the Slovak Republic. The commission worked within work groups focused on particular sections of private law. This commission delivered, only a year and a half later, a document named “The Legislative Intent of Codification of Private Law”, which was then approved by the government in its amended form in January 2009. Despite the relatively intense efforts, the commission did not manage to develop a first discussion version in a paragraph form in the originally defined framework, i. e. until the end of calendar year 2009.

2010 saw another general election (Parliamentary election took part on 10 June 2010), after which Lucia Zitnanskв became the new Minister of Justice, and the matter of recodification of private law entered a latent state.

This only changed after the next (early) election, after which Tomвs Borec, an attorney, became Minister of Justice. Recodification works found political support again, and a new recodification committee was established - in 2013 Prof. Lazar was replaced by the committee's previous member, Anton Dulak (Prof. JUDr. Anton Dulak, PhD., currently in function as the Head of the Private Law Department at Pan-European University, Faculty of Law.), suggested for the position by Prof. Lazar himself (Prof. Lazar lost his position as head of the recodification committee, but remained its “expert sponsor” within the Ministry of Justice). After a deal with the Minister of Justice and the then General Director of the Civil Law Section, Marek Stevcek, the committee was tasked with delivering the first working draft in a paragraph form until September 2015.

Under the heading of Prof. Dulak, the committee completed its duty and delivered thefirst unified working version of the new Civil Code under preparation on 16 September 2015. This was achieved particularly due to the dedicated determination of the committee's members and other enthusiastic colleagues. The work the committee delivered consisted of 1756 paragraphs [12], while the members of the committee supported their work with numerous comment materials, both expert and scientific articles, suggestions received from applied practice, and reports from both domestic and international conferences - all meant to serve as argumentative contribution into the expected expert discussions.

To their surprise [13] and in violation of the previous agreements with the representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the members of the committee found out, via “unofficial sources”, that the ministry intended to establish an entirely new recodification committee [11] (tasked with the “dynamization of the efforts to prepare the new Civil Code” [12]). This happened in November 2015, the new head of the appointed committee being the General Director of the Civil Law Section, Marek Stevcek.

3. A brief comment on the overall concept of Draft Law of 2018 amending the Civil Code

In October 2018 the Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic introduced their vision of a reform of Slovak private law. Despite the fact that changes in the field of civil law have been eagerly expected for a long period, the appearance of the ministry's representatives surprised the expert public. Instead of rebuilding private law, a step meant, with its significance and essential character, to signify its recodification, the ministry (without a broader expert discussion and without changing the legislative purpose of a new Civil Code) announced a proposal of an amendment of the existing Civil Code, primarily focused on “reforming” the law of obligation. This was labeled by its authors as the first stage of recodification of the Civil Code, and was published, along with a justificatory announcement, on their official websites [11].

As is stated above, the change in concept of the reform of civil law surprised the expert public, accepting the new objective with hesitation. Without the need to look up the term in a specialized dictionary, recodification is generally understood as a “new codification” of the corresponding legal sector. In the case of private law in a post-socialist country, this legal sector should not merely be revised, modified or subjected to the so-called horizontal reform. “At times, the difference between revision and recodification is emphasized. While a revision is based on the old legal regulation and its derivatives, a recodification is an implementation of a modern legal regulation with the aim to capture a current reality. Recodification means a reconstruction of a systematic, synthetic and syncretic approach to law; it is a reformation of the initial principles of codification (currently abolished or undervalued) for the purposes of a new order. A recodification, similarly to a codification, is expected to have its own central motive” [1].

Conclusions. In April 2019, new information was published, suggesting that the Ministry of Justice concluded the informal memorandum period related to the recodification of law of obligation [11]. However, it was again `close before a new election', which means that political parties began to focus on their electoral campaigns rather than on a civil law reform. And since Slovakia has a new government from March 2020, we have yet to wait and see what their priorities will be regarding the reform, and to what extent it is able to achieve these.

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