Autonomy of Common European Sales Law in Lithuania
Sį dokumentą lietuvių kalba galima rasti adresu: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2243074 Private law is the area of law in which the resistance to unification in Europe is probably the strongest. Private law codification initiative, which began in 1989, after more than twenty years was recently reduced to optional non binding common sales law draft, which is gradually making its way through the EU institutions’ legislative process. Choice of EU regulation as a form indicates that the willingness to reach objective results is strong enough, but the reasoning in support of this project faces equally strong argument against it. Lithuanian experience expands this discussion in several important respects. Rome I Regulation Article 6.2. deadlock solution is specifically beneficial for smaller countries, where market participants have less bargaining power. In addition, an optional supplementary regulatory framework that the parties could choose, would allow testing existing legal systems by competition. Lithuania's recent reform experience suggests that the draft regulation provides for a smooth change in Europe. Multilingualism, some of the Common European Sales Law solutions, radically different from the Lithuanian national legal provisions will certainly require revision of the existing concepts, but that is not a reason not to try to improve the EU's common private law.
The Questionable Basis of the Common European Sales Law: The Role of an Optional Instrument in Jurisdictional Competition
The Common European Sales Law is designed as an optional instrument that European parties engaged in cross-border transactions could choose for their transactions in preference to national law.  The goal is to increase cross-border transactions and perhaps to enhance European identity.  But the CESL is unlikely to achieve these goals.  It raises transaction costs while producing few if any benefits; it is unlikely to spur beneficial jurisdictional competition; its consumer protection provisions will make it unattractive for businesses; and its impact on European identity is likely to be small.
Codification: history and present significance of an idea – À propos the recodification of private law in the Czech Republic
Abstract. In his lecture presented at the opening of a symposium on the recodification of Czech Private Law the author first analyses the characteristic features of a codification. He then examines in which ways and for which reasons the idea of a civil code managed, from the late 17th century onwards, to recast the entire civilian tradition. The author argues that, contrary to a widely held view (‘decodificazione’), even today codification is not an outdated concept. It constitutes an intellectual effort to look at private law as a systematic whole. In view of the increasing particularization of modern legal science and of the hectic activity of the modem legislator, this kind of focus appears to be even more desirable today than ever before. It is, however, important to beware of exaggerated and unrealistic expectations. More particularly, no codification can ever hope to be comprehensive in a narrow sense of that word. It has to be brought to life, and has to be kept in tune with the changing demands of time, by active and imaginative judicial interpretation and doctrinal elaboration. Sensible draftsmen of a code will therefore exercise considerable self-restraint so as to provide the basis not for confrontation but for an alliance between legislation and legal science. They will also acknowledge the limitations of their power imposed upon them by the tradition within which they operate. The author finally turns his attention to how the actual process of recodification of Czech private law may be organized. He suggests, inter alia, that one of the existing European civil codes should serve as a model. 
Résumé. Dans sa conftrence tenue à l’occasion d’un symposium concemant la nouvelle codification du droit privé tchèque, l’auteur en analyse d’abord les caractéristiques. Ensuite, il continue en examinant de quelle façon et pour quelles raisons la codification des droits, à partir du 17ème siècle, a réorganisé la tradition du droit privé dans toute l’Europe continentale. S’opposant à une opinion répandue (‘decodificazione’), l’auteur pense que l’idée d’une codification est toujours actuelle. Elle représente un effort intellectuel qui consiste à comprendre le droit privé en un tout systématique. La spécialization croissante du droit et l’augmentation ‘fiévreuse’ de activité législative de nos jours exige, selon l’auteur, un effort de codification plus nécessaire que jamais. Cependant, on ne doit pas placer ses espérances trop haut. Notamment, une codification ne peut pas embrasser tous les domaines, elle doit laisser le champ libre à la jurisprudence et la doctrine qui sont tenues de l’adapter perpétuellement à l’évolution des données économiques et sociales. Le nouveau code devra également respecter la tradition juridique dont il fait partie. Enfin, l’auteur porte son attention sur le procès qui est fait actuellement en République tchèque à la recodification du droit privé. Il propose, entre autres, de prendre pour modble le code civil existant de l’un des pays europkens.