engleski

The Croatian Obligations Act: A Modern Codification of the Law of Obligations or a Frankenstein's Monster?

In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the law of obligations, mostly untouched by socialist ideology, was primarily regulated in the federal Obligations Act of 1978 (Zakon o obveznim odnosima ; YZOO) which was largely based on the academic draft code by Professor Mihailo Konstantinović. In preparing the academic draft, a comparative method of study was used, thus the YZOO was heavily influenced by different foreign legislative models. The borrowings from different foreign jurisdictions (Switzerland and Austria on the one hand, and France and Italy on the other), as well as the YZOO deviations from the academic draft, created in some instances systemic problems that are still present and relevant. In Croatia, the “new” Obligations Act (Zakon o obveznim odnosima ; ZOO) was enacted in 2005. ZOO incorporated almost the entire text of YZOO, albeit significantly reorganized and adjusted to the Croatian legal terminology. Thus, the earlier foreign influences were kept, along with the inconsistencies they caused. The lecture will address how legal borrowings from various foreign legal systems without fully understanding the differences between them can lead to undesirable consequences within the national system of private law. Several examples in the context of Croatian ZOO will be explored, with the lecture particularly focusing on Croatian regulation of the termination of contract.

Croatian Obligations Act ; codification ; legal transplants ; termination of contract

Pozvano predavanje na Pravnom fakultetu Sveučilišta Eötvös Loránd u Budimpešti