Even more important is the Second Amendment of 1906. According to this amendment, the legislator imposed equity in cases where absolute equality has not been established between heirs, regardless of their sex. The amendment creates a new legal regulation for the inheritance of descendants: in principle, legal proceedings in Bulgaria are three-instance, although there are many exceptions to this rule. The court system is decentralized, i.e. courts of different grades are distributed throughout the country. Only SCC and SAC are based in the capital Sofia. Civil law is an essential part of the legal system of any country. Civil and commercial law is a system of norms that govern the property relations between individuals within society, as well as the relevant intangible relationships. Civil law governs various contractual relationships, property relations, inheritance and family relations. The general rule is laid down in Article 103 of the new Bulgarian Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that all civil cases, with the exception of those falling within the jurisdiction of the District Court of First Instance, shall fall within the jurisdiction of the Regional Court. Regional courts are the lowest level of the Bulgarian judicial system. According to article 149, paragraph 1, p.
1 of the Constitution: “The Constitutional Court shall interpret the Constitution as compulsory”. The Constitutional Court is also empowered to declare unconstitutional the provisions contained in an Act of Parliament. These two types of decisions of the Constitutional Court are a very important source of law in the Bulgarian legal system. (For more details on the Constitutional Court, please refer to section 3.4.) The process of forming Bulgaria`s contemporary legal system began with the country`s liberation from Ottoman political rule in 1878. It is characterized by the adoption of the first Bulgarian constitution – the Turnovo Constitution, signed on April 16, 1879, a founding document that defends the most progressive and democratic principles that dominated Europe in the nineteenth century. Welcome to the website: The law in Bulgaria. We, the team members of the law firm “Ruskov & Colleagues”, have developed this website for all interested people in the German-speaking world, so that you can have a better overview of Bulgarian law and the legal system. The LA regulates the limitation of acquisition and the limitation of limitations, which is different for contractual or rich claims. On the basis of the French Civil Code, the legislator set a longer period for the acquisition of real estate on the basis of a rule, without good faith and without sufficient legal basis. This is done to ensure legal certainty where the beneficial owners of the property have acted negligently and allowed others to confiscate their property. In the absence of good faith and sufficient legal basis, the limitation period is 20 years. The law also classifies the property according to the persons to whom it belongs – the State, regions, municipalities, natural and legal persons.
The content of the Law on Succession makes it possible to formulate the following principles, which have been adopted on the basis of the Roman legal order: a decision addressed to a natural or legal person of a Member State has direct effect. When the decision is addressed to the Member State, a national Member State shall act as mediator in the direct effect on its application. With the third constitutional amendment (promulgated in the Official Gazette [4] No. 27/31.03.2006), the institution of the Ombudsman was created, which is new in the Bulgarian legal system. The Ombudsman may intervene by the means provided for by law if the rights and freedoms of citizens have been violated by acts or omissions of state and local authorities and by public officials. The Ombudsman Act 2003 sets out the rules governing his powers and functions. The Bulgarian legal system regards the Bar Association as an important institution empowered to protect the rights and interests of legal persons. Therefore, the Constitution and the Law Society Act 2004 proclaim that the Bar is a free, independent and self-regulating body. The modern Bulgarian legal system is influenced by two very important factors: the democratisation and liberalisation of the country`s economy, which began after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, on the one hand, and Bulgaria`s integration into the EU on the other.
The Bulgarian legal system has developed through a profound and closely monitored change in order to achieve consistency with the acquis communautaire. The country signed an EU accession agreement in Luxembourg on 25 April 2005 and Bulgaria`s planned date for accession to the EU is 1 January 2007 (the European Commission`s final report on the country`s accession to the EU will be published in October 2006). Upon accession, EU legislation will become an integral part of the Bulgarian legal system. You will find information on Bulgarian inheritance law, commercial law, contract law, labour law, etc., while we continue to try to add new areas of law. This information is a free service of the law firm Ruskov & Colleagues. Please note that the content of this website contains only general information, which cannot replace comprehensive legal advice tailored to your specific case. The authors assume no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. Please note that the copyright provided herein is reserved. Any use or reproduction requires the prior consent of the law firm Ruskov & Collegues.
As a typical representative of the Romano-Germanic legal family, the Bulgarian legal system recognizes the laws of parliament as the main source of law. Bulgarian case law does not regard precedent as a source of law. Nevertheless, legal doctrine sometimes refers to the so-called direct (laws of parliament and subordinate rules) and indirect (or “subsidiary”) sources of law such as: jurisprudence (the practice of the courts); legal doctrine; legal customs, moral rules and equality (“justice”). In addition, two types of decisions of the Constitutional Court (see 2.5. below) are clearly a source of law (but they cannot be considered as case law). With regard to direct sources, the Bulgarian legal system is based on a strictly defined hierarchy of sources of law, as follows. Following the Roman legal system, our legislators have also adopted the relevant principles underlying Bulgarian contract law. Judgments handed down by Bulgarian courts in individual proceedings do not have overall applicability, i.e. they are binding on the parties concerned, other Bulgarian courts and the administration, but not on other third parties (some exceptions apply). Court decisions are therefore not case law.
Needless to say, individual court decisions can also have a very important practical value and are therefore often of interest to practitioners and cited in other court proceedings. However, they remain only arguments in another independent process. Bulgaria officially joined the European Union in January 2007. As a full member of the European Union, Bulgaria has largely adapted its legislation to European law.