Civil Code signed into law

President Václav Klaus has signed the new Civil Code into law, his spokesman Radim Ochvat said on Monday. The 3,000-paragraph bill will take effect in 2014 and will introduce three basic spheres of private law: family, ownership and contracts. The Justice Ministry has hailed the new codex as ensuring better protection for the rights of citizens and coming closer to modern European law, while shedding Communist-era legislation; some critics on the political Left have countered that it benefits owners and the wealthy. The approval of the new Civil Code was ten years in the making and was one of the current government’s top priorities. The civil code currently in effect was first implemented in 1964 and, despite being updated since, failed to take into account all areas of modern life.

Author: Jan Velinger