As Gustav Radbruch has put it in his famous Einführung in die Rechtswissenschaft, private law builds a stable fundament while the public law creates a variable “superstructure”.[1] The truth of these words had been historically proven in Germany and in Georgia as well. Everyday life of Germans is being influenced by German BGB[2] for last 117 years. Georgian Example is much more dramatic: The Russian empire abrogating Georgian kingdom in 1801 was not able to end the enforceability of the Code drafted by King Vakhtang VI. This code has formed the coherent body of the old Georgian private law having close links with the European law. Two centuries later Georgian lawyers did their best to bring Georgian legal system to the Roman-German space.
Law is a part and parcel of the social culture. Accordingly, the reception of the German law could not have been possible without shared values. The soviet period has cut all contacts between Georgian and European thinkers which has been a case during centuries. However, the political decision made in favor of the free market and freedom of contract encouraged the process.
The level of cooperation and the field of shared values has been drastically increased after Georgia’s association with the European Union. The association agreement and the DCFTA has inspired new wave of harmonization with the European and especially with German law.
Such interactions will evolve as a never ending process. The steady and increased interest of German scholars towards Georgian legal system evidences the practical value of those interactions.
[1] Das Privatrecht bildet das schwerbewegliche fundament, das Staatsrecht den wandelbareren „Überbau”. Radbruch, Gustav; Einführung in die Rechtswissenschaft, 1 Auflage, 1910.
[2] Burgerliches Gesetzbuch – German Civil Code