Martin Šolc for Lidové noviny about the “Better Devil”28/02/13 / Publications

The idiom “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” falls short in describing the recodification, believes Martin Šolc. Rather it is vice versa. Although many lawyers felt uneasy at first about the new private law codes, mainly because they are so new, now there is a general feeling that the new laws must take force despite the mistakes they may contain. “If all laws to take effect were perfect, the Collection of Laws would be empty”, believes Martin.

Martin claims that predictability of the business environment – one key factor for a country to be successful businesswise – is one of the major reasons why the recodification should not be postponed. “Will foreign investors think “are you mad?” and decide to transfer all their investments to a more predictable country?” he says.

Today’s laws fail to deal with many important issues for businesses and individuals alike, since the former socialist legislators believed them to be anachronisms, such as the tools of standard inheritance law. It is also practically impossible to lease a business under the current laws, and it remains unclear what regulations should apply to many contractual relationships. And those are just a few of the difficulties the recodification will resolve.

“The devil we know is so repulsive that I will happily accept a new one. Things could not get any worse,” concludes Martin.

The full article, which was published in Lidové noviny on 16 February 2013, is available here (in Czech only).