Halfway Between Byzantium and Serbia: Marriage Provisions of the Second Žiča Charter .

Marking the eight hundred years anniversary of the adoption of the Žiča Charter issued by Stefan Prvovjenčani is more than a good reason to closely examine the provisions of this Charter. If we think about the historical and political context of that time, it becomes clear that the Žiča Charter provides direct information on the formative processes of the Serbian state and church. Žiča was not only the seat of the new Serbian archdiocese, but also had a central role in building the cult of the Nemanjić dynasty and especially of Stefan Prvovjenčani as its first king. The Žiča Charter, one of the oldest Serbian legal monuments, represents the determination of the first Serbian king to create a powerful Serbian state and strengthen the Serbian Orthodox Church, which would be the base of the political and legal program not only for Stefan Prvovjenčani, but also for his successors. This is reminiscent of the „symphony doctrine” that was copied from Byzantium, and in that copying, no branch of law, including marriage law, was spared. The most important part of this Charter are definitely the norms dedicated to marital law, which show that general political tendencies had a huge impact on private law too. Many legal transplants such as the prohibition of arbitrary divorce, the prohibition of kidnaping as a way of separating spouses or dowry institutions have caused radical changes in Serbian marital law; however, they were not immune to transformations under the influence of customary law and attitudes of the society of medieval Serbia. It once again proves the thesis of professor Alan Watson who claimed that legal transplants have their own, independent life in the law system that accepted them. When it comes to Serbian medieval law, that life started very early. The influence of Roman-Byzantine and canon law was already felt in the Nomokanon of Sveti Sava, and then in the Žiča Charter; in later regulations of Serbian medieval law this influence becomes quite obvious. The main topic of this paper will be the process of legal transplantation in marital law from the Byzantine Empire to Serbia and the author will also try to discover and explain certain regularities and deviations in that process. Тhe analysis of the marital provisions of the Žiča Charter is naturally imposed here as a starting point.

Transpanting the Unidroit Contract Principles into the Qatar Financial Center: a fresh paradigm for wholesale legal transplants?

The Qatar Financial Center (QFC) decided to adopt a set of Contract Regulations that are effectively the equivalent of its contracts statute. The QFC does not have a civil code. The Regulations are largely predicated on the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). Even so, its drafters introduced, in addition, elements peculiar to the common law of contracts that are not found in the PICC, and the QFC Court, which is largely composed of a common law-inclined bench, has made it clear in many of its cases that common law judgments and English statutes can and will serve as authority in the interpretation of the Contract Regulations. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the Regulations are meant to apply in a broader legal system (that of Qatar), which recognizes several elements of Islamic law in the context of public policy—although generally Islamic law plays a very minor role, if at all, in the ordinary Qatari law of contracts. Despite the complexity underlying the Contract Regulations, its relevant success—to date—is firmly premised on the fact that the process of legal transplantation was not undertaken in a vacuum, but, rather, it is a ‘living instrument’ that is acceptable and, above all, useful to its stakeholders. Much like other contract law-related legal transplants taking root in other special economic zones, so too the QFC Contract Regulations represent an excellent paradigm as to how wholesale legal transplants can be undertaken.

Trends and Development of the Directors’ Duty of Loyalty in China: A Case Analysis

Covering a central theme in corporate law development, this paper discusses the pragmatic utility of the common-law-originated duty of loyalty of company directors in the civil law context of China. The reception of legal transplantation in a host environment remains a contentious theme, and it seems to be an opportune time to study relevant cases that have been adjudicated since China’s statutory inauguration of the directors’ duty of loyalty in 2005, in the sense that more than 10 years of practice has resulted in ample evidence on the practical effects of this transplanted duty. Through an analysis of 526 cases on the basis of eight attributes, we discovered some commendable features, including increasing accessibility of the law and a differentiation of various types of directors’ duties of loyalty. Meanwhile, the selective adoption norm customary to Chinese culture has to a certain extent compromised the intended goals of greater legislative clarity, judicial consistency and in turn balanced and sustainable businesses, demonstrated in several incompatibilities between transplanted duties and domestic legal institutions. Reshaping the conventional transplantation ideal that commercial laws are easily transferable, the paper suggests the construction of a broad collateral regime for greater congruence between laws and existing institutions.

Set and Forget? The Evolution of Business Law in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey

This study examines the transplantation and evolution of business law in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish republic, drawing broader implications for the economic and political determinants of legal transplantation for late industrializers. We show that the underlying political economy context was influential in shaping the way commercial law was transplanted and evolved in Turkey. Extraterritorial rights in the nineteenth century eroded the incentives to demand legal change by providing alternative legal rules to the non-Muslim commercial elite; the nation-building efforts of the twentieth century cultivated a new Muslim business class that was reliant on the state's goodwill for success and could not effectively push for more open access to novel forms of business organization.

With or Without You: Qing, Li, Fa, and Legal Pluralism in China

The concept of legal pluralism was introduced to China in the mid-1990s to address the conflict between state law and local norms and customs. More than two decades after its introduction, the scope of legal pluralism in China has shifted to the coexistence and interaction between state law and nonstate orders. In this article, I review theoretical discussions and empirical studies on legal pluralism in China. The existing studies on legal pluralism focus mostly on rural villages, which marginalizes the lived experience of urban residents who are also caught in China’s rapid legal transplantation in recent decades. At the same time, law and society scholars who study labor dispute resolution in urban China tend to frame the questions as legal mobilization, rather than legal pluralism. The term qingli 情理[commonsense feelings of justice] is a common theme underlying the scholarship of legal pluralism and legal mobilization in China, and thus it has the potential to bring them together and bridge the findings of the two bodies of scholarship. This article contributes to the literature on Chinese law and society by demonstrating the role that qingli plays in bridging different areas of sociolegal studies.

CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF LEGAL TRANSPLANTS IN LABOUR LAW OF UKRAINE

The paper analyzes the features of the implementation of legal transplants in the labour law of Ukraine, as well as the factors that contribute to the effective implementation of this category. Transplantation of legal rules and institutions from one country to another is quite common in the world and the history shows many examples of positive or negative transplantation of rules and institutions of labour law. Collective labour law is characterized by a pronounced complexity, which manifests itself in a variety of related interdependent elements that require mandatory accounting. In the individual labour law, such complexity is less pronounced, therefore, some of its practical elements are naturally inclined towards greater acceptance. The most comprehensive example of successful legal transplantation is labour standards of the International Labour Organization. The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals directly with the world of work. As of today, 187 states are members of this organization. The ILO adopts conventions, recommendations and protocols on labour issues. The most striking manifestations of legal transplants in the labour law of Ukraine are characteristic, first of all, for the period of its formation and development, which falls on the 20th century. Turning to the prospects for the use of transplants in labour law of Ukraine, it should be noted that in the future this phenomenon to some extent will inevitably accompany the rule-making process. This is facilitated by Ukraine's membership in the ILO, EU integration, growing globalization, the gradual narrowing of social barriers, the rapid development of digital technologies, etc. However, in this case, it should always be remembered that legal transplantation does not forgive formalism and dilettantism, it is not expressed in the literal transfer of the rule or institution of law, but is a complex and complicated process, which is characterized by a wide range of related factors. Such factors include: political component, socio-economic context, traditions in society and social culture, legal culture. Labour law belongs to those branches of law that are naturally suitable for legal transplants. More than a century of ILO activity is a vivid confirmation of this. In turn, legal transplants should not be considered as an option that allows to minimize efforts in reforming national legislation, on the contrary, they are characterized by a rather complex procedure, which is influenced by political, socio-economic, cultural and legal factors. But a comprehensive and balanced consideration of these factors will undoubtedly lead to a positive result. This is due to the presence of a significant number of foreign examples that have long been tested in practice and have led to favorable consequences in the legal regulation of employment relationships, and their implementation in Ukraine would certainly serve as an impetus for the further development and effective functioning of domestic labour law.