Dear reader,

• Author: Paul Varul
• Pages: 1-1

Dear reader,

The main topic of this year’s Juridica International is the Estonian Civil Code in a European Private Law Context, as an international conference in this subject will take place in Tartu on 27-28 September. The conference is organised by the University of Tartu in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court. More than 600 people will participate in the conference, including acclaimed jurists from Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, France, Russia, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine. The conference is dedicated to the completion of the new Estonian Civil Code, the objective is to discuss the main problems of civil law, to compare Estonia with other countries and to address the development trends of private law in Europe.

Preparation of the new Estonian Civil Code began in 1992. The goal was to create a civil code suitable for a democratic, market economy-orientated state, as the old civil code no longer corresponded to the new conditions after Estonia regained her independence in August 1991. The Civil Code consists of five parts, adopted as separate Acts -- the General Part of the Civil Code Act and the Family Law Act in 1994, the Law of Property Act in 1993 and the Law of Succession Act in 1996; the preparation of the draft Law of Obligations Act, as the lengthiest part, has also taken the longest time, but is now ready and will be adopted in the near future. The part laws have been prepared with a view to the fact that they are organically linked parts that collectively form the Civil Code.

So, by 2001, ten years after regaining independence Estonia has a new and modern Civil Code. Of course, work continues to elaborate the parts of the Code. Together with the Law of Obligations Act, an amended General Principles of the Civil Code Act is planned to be adopted, whereas the provisions of international private law are separated from the General Principles and an...