Abstrakt
2014 was a turning point for the Czech civil law. It underwent a significant change because the new civil code came into effect on 1st January 2014 and replaced the civil code of 1964.
The previous civil code was characteristic of its negative attitude to the Roman law tradition as it was written by the Socialist lawmaker who believed Roman law to be an old-world relic that must be abandoned. The new civil code does not follow the Socialist lawmaker anymore.
If you read it superficially, you get the impression that it broadly follows Roman law concepts. The influence of Roman law is even explicitly acknowledged by the authors of the text of the Civil code, although they are not Roman law scholars.
However, detailed examination reveals that the civil code uses several Roman law terms and institutes, but it often does not adopt the substantial content of Roman law regulation, it is even contradictory sometimes. The paper focuses on 5 aspects of possession in the new civil code.
It is not only concerned with the formal point of view, it would like to examine, to what extent the substantial part of current civil law follows the Roman law tradition. It is evident that the new Czech civil code is based on the Roman law principles, contrary to the previous civil law regulation, uses corresponding terminology, classifies possessory remedies in the traditional manner, explicitly allows the possessor to use extrajudicial means of defence as self-help.
On the other hand, the civil code experiments with protection of detention with an unclear result and, above all, inappropriately unifies objects of possession in one category of possession of a right that does not reflect origins of possession nor the Roman law theory.