Neglected Challenges of Law in the 21st Century: Focus on Post-Socialist Central Europe

Abstract

While libraries have been filled with publications devoted to the impact of globalization and the European integration on law, much less was written on the challenges law and lawyers face because of the world changing with unprecedented speed – the scholarly example of which is the birth of internet law. Many of these survive unnoticed until the outbreak of calamities as it was the case with the 2007 Credit Crunch originating in the United States and soon leading to a major global financial crisis. Bearing this in mind, this paper is focused on such perplexing fundamental changes the true dimensions of which have so far largely remained uncharted. Although their presence is at some level noted, they virtually slip from our hands and consequently no panacea has been forged against the risks generated by them. They not only plague comprehension but may lead to fatal errors as amply demonstrated by the post-1990 transitory period of the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Herein, the challenges caused by the following phenomena will be focused upon: 1/ the heightened role of foreign languages, legal terminology and etymology; 2/ the expanded and more direct role of foreign (comparative) law as well as of 3/ interdisciplinarity; and 4/ the growing speed of social-economic changes.

Keywords: globalization, transplantation, European Union law, comparative law, legal terminology, etymology, interdisciplinarity, parochialism, legal imperialism, legal innovation, law and economics, pyramid and Ponzi schemes, self-help and private debt collection, secured transactions law reforms, investment

JEL Classification: K40