Private law in Eastern Europe

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Over two decades have passed since the collapse of socialist systems, prompting a focus on recognizing property rights as essential for free market economies. Regulators have recognized that successful transformation requires a systematic approach to codified civil and business law. While numerous comparative law studies have explored individual Eastern European states, they often fail to capture the full dynamic of transformation. Long-term perspectives and multi-nation comparisons are particularly scarce. In March 2009, a symposium at the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law sought to address these gaps. This conference volume, edited by Christa Jessel-Holst, Rainer Kulms, and Alexander Trunk, compiles contributions from international policy advisors and scholars across Eastern and South Eastern Europe, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. They assess codification processes in traditional civil law areas and company and capital market laws. Despite facing similar transformation challenges, the individual processes vary significantly, fluctuating between 'old' socialist codifications, legislative projects aligned with the acquis communautaire, and new, autonomous codifications. Nonetheless, most transformation states share a commitment to establishing efficient court systems capable of managing the acquis without a s