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Abstract
This lecture will communicate some of the research results of my upcoming book Redefining codification. A comparative history of civil, commercial and procedural codes. Most countries in the world have codes. Still, there is considerable debate about the concept of code/codification. I will, therefore, first study existing literature on this topic. Previous publications distinguish between mere compilations and true or modern codes. The latter are original, innovative, comprehensive, coherent, consistent and accessible texts regulating an area of the law for the whole nation. This ideal view of a true code does not survive contact with the empirical reality of civil, commercial, and civil procedure codes in four countries (France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands), which I have studied from the late eighteenth century until now. Therefore, I propose a redefinition of the concept, based on the empirical material and not on lofty aspirations, that were irrealistic around 1800 and even more today. Whether this definition may also be valid for other fields of law, eras, or countries (e.g. codifications in Poland), other than the ones I have studied, is a question I leave to my audience. At least from what I have studied, it becomes clear that some evaluations of codes as defective reveal more about the irrealistic concept of code/codification used so far than about the actual possibilities and limits of codifications. In short, we need to reevaluate our view of past and present codes.
2024 November 12