On the Inspiration of the Austrian Civil Code (1811) in Terms of Legal Culture

Inspirational spirit of the 200 years old Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) is not ceasing to work. It still remains an exceptional and timeless value-emanating fundamental work. Many of its basic values have been gradually transformed into generally socially shared norms even without their formal legal anchoring in the present. The principles of the ABGB have been even declared by the Czech Constitutional Court to be a part of the Czech legal order. A kind of „secondary emanation“ of the ABGB occurred in the late 30´s of the 20th century in the form of a draft of a modernized Czech Civil Code that has never come true due to the international developments. A „tertiary emanantion“ is to be observed nowadays in terms of preparatory works on a fundamentally new Czech Civil Code. Natural law concept of the ABGB seems to be a kind of a private law „ratio scripta“. The artificial splitting of the private law system in the Czechoslovakia during the 60´s of the 20´th century due to ideologically founded schemes seems to be surmounted now again. Czech private law is now experiencing a great attempt to come back to the „roots of a tree with european branches“. Violent ideologization of this process might by as detrimental as the similar approach in the 50´s in connection with establishing „socialist civil and economic law“. ABGB is still now - after 200 years of its adoption - an important benchmark of all newly borne civil law codifications.