Transformation of the Slovak civil law after 1989
Transformation of the Slovak civil law after 1989

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the transformation of selected civil law institutes after 1989 in the Slovak legal order. After the Velvet Revolution in the Czechoslovak republic and the removal of the socialist state establishment, it was necessary to adapt the legal order to the new social reality. An amendment to the Slovak Civil Code in brought 1991 signifcant changes in the Slovak civil law. The amendment addressed the most pressing problems, but it was never meant to be a comprehensive solution for decades to come. It also caused the persistent unsystematic and illogical structure of the Slovak Civil Code to this day. Therefore, even at the time of its adoption, the amendment was subject to legitimate criticism, but at the same time it was accepted within application practice in the understanding that it represented a temporary solution. The makeshift that this amendment created though persists to this day. This paper focuses on selected shortcomings of the Slovak civil law, which the amendment either failed to remove or itself created. The frst issue pointed out in this paper is the absence of the link to other private-law codes, since the Slovak Civil Code as a general code of private law should also serve the needs of other private-law sectors. Another unfortunate consequence of the pace of amendments to private law after 1989 is the dualism of the regulation of contract law in the Slovak legal system. The dual regulation of the contract law in the Civil Code and the Commercial Code in the Slovak legal system brings with it a considerable lack of transparency in this legislation. Lastly the article deals with the absence of the superfcies solo cedit principle in the Slovak Civil Code. The superfcies solo cedit principle has its origin in Roman law and used to be a stable part of the legal tradition in Slovakia. During the communist era, the socialist lawmaker chose to abandon the superfcies solo cedit principle in 1950. The absence if this principle still causes many signifcant practical issues and this paper illustrates some of these problems.

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