Conceptual Autonomy and Semantic Identity in EU Law: Balancing on the Edge of Prescription and Extinguishment of a Right

Abstract

By examining the nature of the time limit for the right to compensation for damage caused by defective products (Article 11 of Directive 85/374/EEC – Product Liability Directive) in relation to the Slovak legal order (Act no. 294/1999 Coll. on Liability for defective products implementing the EU Directive), the authors address the question of the consequences of the conflict between the different language versions of the Directive. At the same time, they examine whether the semantic identity of the different linguistic expressions and the conceptual autonomy of a term of EU law do not allow for different legal consequences in different implementation environments.