The Influence of Anglo-American Law on the Process of Civil Law Reform in Georgia

Abstract

Establishment of market economy in Georgia has facilitated the development of production and trade, as well as economic convergence of the country with other states, among them, with the United States of America. At the formation stage of the mentioned above relationship, it was already discussed that knowledge of the legal norms, regulating the trade and business in these two countries, should have been given greater importance.
In Georgia, in 1990-s, as compared with the law of continental Europe, one of the main reasons for lower level of study of common law was the fact that Georgia, during the decades, belonged to the socialistic legal system and there was no interest towards the common law. And then, the situation has completely changed. In the process of reformation of the Georgian law, the norms were being introduced from the continental Europe, as well as from common law, raising the issue of study and research of very interesting, but less known for Georgia by that time, common law system.
The Commission, working on the drafting of the Civil Code of Georgia, has not demonstrated particular interest towards the Anglo-American law. Probably, the reason for the above attitude was the fact that societies of transition period of post-soviet space were not offered to take the Anglo-Saxon model, as far as the precision and compactness of expression of obligations was considered as necessary for them, in accordance with the traditions of continental Europe.
Nevertheless, at the initial stage of reform, there was some discussion about compatibility of Georgian law to the common law. For example, in general part of the Civil Code, the footprints of common law are less observed, however, certain influence on the transactions is still noticeable, as the Commission, in the process of working, was also getting familiar with the provisions effective in the common law.
The aim of the paper is to discuss the influence of Anglo-American law on Georgian civil law. This should be a novelty in the sense that in Georgian sources this topic is mainly covered against the backdrop of European, and specifically German law, which makes it interesting to study the experience of a legal system different from that of Continental Europe.