THE UNIFICATION EFFORTS IN EU CIVIL LAW

Year 2018, Volume: 26 Issue: 2, 25 - 67, 28.12.2018

Eylem Apaydın , Deniz Tekin Apaydın

https://doi.org/10.29228/mjes.32

Abstract

In the EU, it has been a prolonged idea that one day; the EU countries might share a common code regarding the civil law issues. A comprehensive civil code includes chapters on law of persons, family law, inheritance law, property law and the law of obligations (the law of contracts, torts and unjust enrichment) as witnessed by French and German Civil Codes. The solid efforts for this purpose were shown from the beginning of the 90’s and have continued so far. Yet, nothing remarkable has been achieved. The article aims to analyse all the processes and efforts for the unification of civil law in the EU and demonstrate all the accomplishments and failures so far. The article, initially presents the competence of the EU to regulate the area, and then argues the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of the idea of a unified civil law; reveals the method to unify the civil law; and explores all the possible forms that the EU civil code could take. All the research done so far about the unification of the EU civil law have also been mentioned. Based on the findings revealed, this article concludes that it is difficult to produce a common civil code in the EU soon.     

Keywords

Civil law, civil code, EU, unification of law

References

• A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe COM (2015) 192 final, <http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/digital-single-market/>. Akkermans, B., (2008) “Common Frame of Reference, the EU Consumer Acquis and European Property Law” presented at the Ius Commune Research School Conference, “Workshop Property Law”, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 28 November, <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? abstract_id=1626793>. Apaydın, E., (2016) “Common Law’da Trust Kavramı ve Civil Law’da Trust Alanında Güncel Gelişmeler” Legal Hukuk Dergisi, (14): 1789-838.