NEW CIVIL CODE IN SLOVAKIA AND COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGE UNDER THE NEW RULES

The Civil Code valid in Slovakia is from 1964, thus still from the times of Czechoslovakia. Although it underwent a major change especially in 1991, many institutions including compensation for damage remained untouched and are obsolete today. The times already required an extensive change and the new Civil Code brings a major change. Therefore, a new Civil Code was prepared and approved in the first reading in the National Council of the Slovak Republic, which is to be promulgated in the collection of laws in the autumn of this year and is to enter into force on 1 July 2027. It is based, including the part concerning compensation for damage, on the DCFR.1) The basic principles of the new Civil Code are dispositiveness, autonomy of will, preference for validity and informality of acts. The dualism in the Slovak legal order is being removed and even commercial law relations, currently regulated by the Commercial Code, will be regulated by the new Civil Code. Compensation for damage is newly placed in the fifth part concerning obligation law, which is divided into contractual and non-contractual obligations. Obligations from caused damage will belong, together with unjust enrichment and acting without mandate, among non-contractual obligations.