Legal Transplants: Snapshots of the State of the Art and a Case Study from Central Europe

Abstract

Abstract: Strict contractual liability, foreseeability and non-cumul in the new Hungarian Civil Code are a living laboratory of legal transplantation. After an introduction (I) an overview is provided on the state of the art on legal transplants in seven theses (II). A case study follows next (III), sorted into three categories: ‘full legal transplants’ (comparative analyses took place both before and after the transplantation); ‘limping legal transplants’ (no a priori comparative considerations took place but the comparative toolbox is used in interpreting the new rules) and ‘surprising legal transplants,’ based on the spontaneous intuitions of the legislator having resulted in rejection and/or conversion into a ‘legal irritant’. The conclusions (IV) verify the significance of comparative analyses both in the pre- and post-transplantation phase.