A Perspective Of Comparative Legal History Presented by: Mr. Kovács Date: 9 May 2024 Common Challenges - European division of labor in the early modern period - Legal unification and modernization after World War I - Transition from a centrally planned economy after the fall of the Soviet-style totalitarian regimes First Wave Of Codification Of Company Law - Top-down approach: 1766 Polish joint-stock company and Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest (1830, 1840) - Act XVIII of 1840: LP, GP, JSC - Act no. 1/1863 called AHGB + Act no. 58/1906 (Private companies/LLC) in Cisleithania (Czechia, Slovenia and parts of Poland) HungarianCroatian Date Of Adaption Models Followed Of The Ccs 1875 German Serbian 1860 Romanian 1840 1863;1887 Corporate Vehicles Available General partnership, limited partnership, jointstock company and cooperatives French and partly General German partnership, limited partnership, jointstock company and French; Italian (1882) Legal unification and modernization after World War I - Legal particularism after the war. The number of company law systems in force at the same time: • Romania: 4 (Original + AHGB + Hungarian + Russian) • Czechoslovakia: 2 (AHGB + Hungarian) • Yugoslavia: 6 (AHGB + Serbian + Croatian-Hungarian + Bosnian Herzegovinian + Montenegrin) • Poland: (Congress Kingdom French Code de commerce of 1807 + HGB of 1897 on the western territories + AHGB + Russian Trade Act of 1912) Solution: Codification - Poland: Commercial Code of 1934 (based on an Italian Project also based on the German system) - Czechoslovakia: work not completed. 1937 MJ submitted a draft of the first two books - Yugoslavia: Commercial Code adopted in 1937 (never entered into force) - Romania: CC was set to enter into force on September 15, 1940, but later on got indefinitely delayed. In 1943 and 1945 the CC of 1887 was extended to the entire country Transition - Through what kind of legislation was it achieved? • Czech Republic. Commercial Code of 1992; now: Civil Code and Act no. 90/2012 Sb. (Business Corporations Act) in force since 2014 • Croatia: Companies Act of 1993 entered into force in 1995 (German model) • Hungary: Act VI of 1988, Act CXLIV of 1997, and Act IV of 2006. Now: Civil Code (Act V of 2013) • Poland: the round table talks led to key economic changes from January 1, 1989, Code of Commercial Companies (CCC) entered into force in 2001 (the idea of continuity) • Romania: the 1887 CC was reinstated, however: outdated => enactment of Law No. 31 of 1990 • Serbia: 1988 first Law on Enterprises, new regulation in 1996 (LLC), but real economic transformation: Law on Commercial Companies introduced in 2004, and Law on Commercial Companies of 2011 • Slovenia: Companies Act ("ZGD") from 1993. In 2006 replaced by the revised Companies Act • Slovakia: Commercial Code of 1992 in force still, though amended many times Croatia Slovenia Romania Entry into force of the legislation referring to Company Law 1995 1993 and 2006 1990 Number of amendments and supplementations 16 8+11 45+