The Civil Code Is Dead. Long Live The Civil Code

The former Civil Code, adopted in 1864, had not experienced major changes over time. As society changed, however, so did the need to create a coherent legal framework reflecting the changes. Romanian policy makers chose a radical solution: removal of the old code and enactment of a new one.

Background

After reviewing regulations in other civil law systems (eg, the civil codes in the Canadian province of Quebec, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil) and international documents Romania is a party to (eg, the European Convention on Human Rights, the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods), the new Civil Code appeared in 2009. It was enacted by Law 71/2011, which entrusted the throne of the Romanian legal system to the new Civil Code (New Civil Code) from 1 October 2011.