Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Verpflanzbarkeit von Recht: Juristische Zusammenarbeit aus der Sicht eines Beraters

Boundaries and Potentials in the Transfer of Law: An Advisor's View of Legal Cooperation The essay analyses theoretical assumptions and political considerations of legal and judicial reform projects and is based on the author's practical experience as a legal advisor to CIS and other transformation States. By insisting on (1) systemic legal reform including codification, the enforcement of contracts and registration of property title; (2) comprehensive and joint efforts of implementation; and (3) building institutions, the essay is in opposition to the 'Washington consensus' of the 1990's, where leading international development and financial institutions were convinced that the privatisation of State enterprises, the liberalisation of trade and financial markets, the deregulation of economic relations and, finally, fiscal discipline would suffice to induce profound change and sustainable economic and social development of former socialist societies, a belief and therapy that led to disaster.Recalling the 'law and development' movement in Latin America of the 1960's and its self-criticism in the USA – which has not prevented a renewed attempt in the East – the essay tries to set forth conditions and prerequisites for a successful cooperation between national and international legal experts. It rejects both the thesis that law is necessarily national and not 'transplantable' as well as the opposite one according to which law can be transplanted notwithstanding the context. It elaborates on the interdependence of universal legal principles in a given historical time on the one hand and local, social and cultural context on the other. It stresses the importance of the quality of national and international legal advisors and their ways of cooperation within this perspective.At the end, two examples are presented to concretize the analysis: the movement for registration of property titles and the introduction of common law into a continental European civil law system.