• Research programme P5-0337, The Influence of European Law on Slovenian Private Law. Programme leader: Prof. Dr. Lojze Ude. Co-financed by: Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (1 Jan. 2004 – 31 Dec. 2008)

The purpose of the research programme is to study the harmonisation of private law that is taking place in the European Union and influences the legal systems of its Member States. Private law is the law of everyday life and its norms enter the legal consciousness of people, therefore frequent changes of these rules are not common. National civil codes usually survive through decades or even centuries without significant changes to their conception. Due to this, the regulation of private law in the EU remains nationally based and is subject neither to unified codification nor to complete harmonisation with EU legislation. Uniform rules are in preparation, such as The Principles of European Contract Law by the Lando commission and the European Commission project on Common Frame of Reference; for the time being, however, the use of these rules can only be based on the autonomy of the parties or serve as a model for the voluntary reform of national legislations. The obstacles to unification are especially the unwillingness of Member States to give up on their civil codes and the conceptual differences between continental legal systems and common law, which hinder the formation of compromise norms. The research has shown that the indirect effect of European law on Member States' private law remains intensive, nevertheless. EU law (both the legislation and the case law) affects national civil and commercial law espe-cially through sector legislation – by regulating specific issues that are important for uninterrupted functioning of the internal market of the EU and enabling the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital. EU legislation partially covers especially the following fields of private law: competition law, consumer protection law, international private law, intellectual property law, company law, securities law, banking and insurance law. In several areas, the European harmonisation of law has also been achieved by instruments of other international organisations, especially in the framework of the UN (e.g. the Vienna Convention in the International Sale of Goods and several UNCITRAL model laws) or by instruments of international autonomous law (e.g. various compendia of International Chamber of Commerce). It can be established that the growing similarity of national legislations in the field of private law often exceeds the obligations of Member States, arising from harmonising documents. The use of comparative legal approach is spreading in the process of preparation of new legislation (e.g. Art. 115 of the Rules of Procedure of Slovenian Parliament provides that each proposal of a new legislative act shall include a review of the regulation of the same issues in the legal systems of at least three other EU Member States), which stimulates national legislators to adopt successful solutions already implemented in other states even when they concern issues not included in EU directives. This phenomenon reflects the growing integration of European markets and economies and, in small legal systems such as Slovenian, compensates for the inadequately developed legal domestic theory in certain fields.

The study of Slovenian private law in the context of other European national legal systems and European Union’s acquis communautaire gives the appropriate expert basis for the preparation of qualitative normative solutions that have proved to be efficient in other legal systems and, on the other hand, contributes to the development of Slovenian legal theory by qualifying it to substantiate such solutions and transmit them into practice. Such development of the positive law and legal theory provides a clear basis to the legal practice for efficient and uniform legal decision-making, thereby increasing the legal certainty of all persons and enabling a comparative transparency of Slovenian legal order that is essential both for the increase in the competitive efficiency of the domestic economy and for the attraction of foreign investments. The cooperation of the research group with various clients from both public and private sector shows that the research group has obtained useful knowledge and that the results of its work can server a purpose. Our research work has significant influence on the development and performance of under-graduate and post-graduate study in the field of private law in subjects lectured by the members of the research group and indirectly also in other private law related subjects where students learn about the recent development of legal science stemming from the research carried out and from the published achievements. Members of the research group have acted as tutors to students in the preparation of numerous graduate, masters and doctoral theses. The influence of European law on Slovenian private law and the adaptation of Slovenian private law to the European framework of course form a field of research that will never be entirely completed. The extent of European legal regulation is extending rapidly and in a way that it is difficult in certain areas to define clearly the extent of regulation in EU’s competence. The study of these problems and the search for methodological solutions for a rational delimitation of communitarian and national competences in the field of regulation of private law will remain one of the orientations of our research until the end of this research programme and later on.