Commercial law in the Czech Republic (past, present, future)

Abstract

In this paper the author addresses the issue of commercial law in the Czech Republic in the context of EU membership. The Czech Republic has existed as an autonomous state since 1 January 1993and a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004. Furthermore, until 31 December 1992, the Czech Republic was part of the federal union of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. All these factors have influenced the legislative form of the law of the Czech Republic. Due to the fact that a major change in commercial law is currently being prepared (particularly a law on commercial companies and cooperatives- Act on Corporate Groups), the aim pursued in this paper is to briefly explore the legislative history of commercial law in the Czech Republic as well as to analyse the planned future legal norm, i.e. the reasons for its creation and the major changes that shall take place. In this context, another objective is to answer the question of whether the new legislation under preparation is really necessary with regard to the requirement of legal certainty for addressees of legal norms.