Codification of Civil Law in Kosovo: An Analysis of the Main Principles of Book One – General Part of the Kosovo Draft Civil Code

Abstract

Kosovo is in the process of civil law codification. Civil law relationships are currently regulated by special laws. After the end of the war in 1999, Kosovo’s jurisdiction became complex due to the simultaneous application of different laws: the UNMIK regulations, previous laws, and the legislation adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo from 2001 onwards. Consequently, these circumstances have had an impact and caused different interpretations and inconsistent application of the laws in the same cases, which among other issues points to the need for codification. The lack of clear and uniform law implementation in court cases related to the civil law matters is also considered an issue that can be resolved by the harmonisation of civil law through a civil code. In other words, the drafting of a civil code will clean up the legal system from different laws in place. It will harmonize and bring Kosovo’s legislation closer to the international standards and best practices in this area of law, which will lead to better law implementation. In this paper, questions related to the approach and model of the civil code will be discussed. Further discussion will focus on the main general principles outlined in the General Part of the Civil Code approved by the Government on 29 December 2021, which is being regulated in Kosovo for the first time. The analyses in this paper are based on a review of literature, Kosovo legislation and references to the European countries’ legislation which are used as models for some parts of the Kosovo Draft Civil Code. Finally, some conclusions are drawn regarding the questions raised concerning the model of the civil code and the general principles included in the code.