3 ARTICLE DEVELOPMENT OF PRIVATE (CIVIL) LAW IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AFTER WORLD WAR II By Gбbor Hamza (Hungary) Author LLD, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1983 Chair Professor of Law, Eцtvцs Lorбnd University, Budapest Ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences E-mail: gabor.hamza@ajk.elte.hu Abstract The article analyses peculiarities of civil law in socialist countries. <...> The author also considers problems of adaptation of Central and Eastern European law systems in the conditions of modern market economic reality after socialism upset. <...> Romanist (Pandectist) infl uence can be observed in civil codes of all socialistic states. <...> There were three different types of civil law codifi cation in those countries. <...> The fi rst of them (USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) is characterised by adoption of socialist civil codes. <...> The second type (Bulgaria and Albania) is characterised by adoption of several laws relating to the law of property, law of obligations, law of succession, etc. <...> The third type (e.g. Romania) is characterised by conserving its former “bourgeois” Civil Code. <...> Nowadays a major contribution to the development of private/civil law is the ongoing process of European harmonisation of law in those countries of Central and Eastern Europe which became member states of the European Union. <...> But a signifi cant modern trend in the mentioned countries is also so-called re-implementation of the pre-socialistic legislation. <...> In the author’s opinion, the main Volume 2 May 2015 Issue 1(3) www.kulawr.ru 4 KUTAFIN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW reason for this phenomenon is the intention to maintain a relative autonomy. <...> Keywords Central and Eastern Europe, private law, civil law, socialist law, legal families, legal traditions, codifi cation of law TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction . 5 II. <...> Socialist Law as a Separate Legal Family . 6 A. Introduction . 6 B. States with a Strong Romano-Byzantine Legal Tradition . 9 C. States with the Roman (Civil) Law Tradition . 10 III. <...> Codifi cation of Private/Civil Law in Western Europe and Its Influence on Central and Eastern Europe. .10 IV. <...> The Process of Codifi cation in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union . 13 V. Characteristics <...>