law
set of general (mandatory) rules fot outward behavoir of persons living in a social context, enforceable by authorities.
private law
part of the law dealing with legal relationships between private persons
public law
part of the law dealing with legal relationships between the state and the private persons
private persons:
are legal subjects (two kinds):
- natural person= human being, physical person (flesh, blood and bones)
- legal person= intangible legal subject, not composed of flesh …, created through a deed of incoporation/ registration
civil law “legal family”:
(codified private law) based on:
- roman law (civil transactions)
- customary commercial law (commercial transactions, between merchants)
common law “legal family”
(no codification on private law) based on:
- englisg comman law concepts= case law
(has no distinction between civil and commercial transactions)
3 kinds of private law in the early middle ages
ca. 400 - 1100
- Roman law
- Customary law (tribal law)
- Law of the church (canon law)
kinds of private law in the hight middle ages
ca. 1100 - 1500
- rediscovery of Roman law (corpus iuris civilis)
- development of Ius commune= common law of Europe
kinds of private law in the high middle ages and early modern times (ca. 1200 - 1800)
- rise of “non learned” customary law
codifications
code of law that encompasses an entire fiels of law in a clear, systematic and comprehensive manner which claims exclusive validity.
French “civil code”
part of private law that applies generally to legal relationships between private persons
French “commercial code”
part of private law that applies to legal relationships between those engaged in “trade and commerce” = “merchants”
kind of private laws in the New socio - economic legislation (post WWII)
- regulatory law= regulating economic transactions with a view to ensuring the general interest in the smooth functioning of the marvket
- cross- cutting legislation= across traditional boundaries of private and public law
French civil code structure
- first book: on persons
- second book: on goods and property law
- third book: on how to acquire ownership (wealth)
French Code Civil, philosopical underpinnings
- partly modern
- partly conservative
- compromise between droit écrit (contract law, law of willas) and droir coutumier (family law, law of inheritance)
German “Bürgerliches Gezetzbuch” structure
- first book: general part
- second book: law of obligations
- third book: law of property
- fourth book: family law
- fifth book: inheritance law
common law based on “writs”
writs are at the beginning of a court action, they are commands of the King directed to an official / judgen and contained a brief indication of a matter under dispute
- calls the defendant into his court to resolve dispute
comman law “equity”
Chancellor (a cleric) who was familiar with common law, tried to find remedies in unfairly decided lawsuits or if no “writ” existed
- called both parties and investigated in a non- formal process the truth
Four stages of market integration- EU
1) free trade area
2) customs union
3) common market/ internal market
4) economic and monetary union (introduction of euro)
internal market
free movement of goods, persons, services and capital (= negative integration) harmonisation (=positive integration)
DCFR
“Draft Common Frame of Reference”
- purpose: awareness of ecistance of EU privat law; demonstates that just a small number of cases the different legal systems produce substantially different answers to common problems
structure of DCFR
- B1: general provisions
- B2: contracts and other juridical acts
- B3: obligations and corresponding rights
- B4: specific contracts and the rights and obligations arising from them
- B5: benevolent intervention in another’s affairs
- B6: Non-contractual libility arising out of damage caused to another
- B7: unjustified enrichment
- B8: acquisition and loss of ownership of goods
- B9: proprietary security in movable assets
- B10: trusts
