Introduction on The Civil Code of Cambodia

Document from the year 2014 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, , language: English, abstract: On December 08, 2007 the new Civil Code of Cambodia was promulgated by Royal Kram NS/RKM/1207/030. Together with the Criminal Code, the Civil Procedure Codes and the Criminal Code it was defined as both a fundamental law as well as a strategic objective of the Council for the Legal and Judicial Reforms. This legislation was part of the first phase of the "Plan of Action for Implementing the Legal and Judicial Reform Strategy" which was implemented by the Royal Government of Cambodia on 29 April 2005. The impetus for the Cambodian government to set out a policy on legal and judicial reform came from the plan to enter WTO. Due to the fact that most of the legal provisions dealing with civil matters have been scattered and insufficient, a compilation of those legal texts followed by updated provisions was required. This was the impetus for drafting a new Civil Code with a unified, consistent and complete set of civil laws. This is why the Civil Code has become the core piece of legislation in the private law sector regulating the most areas of private life, including business activities and property rights. The new Civil Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia has been developed, since 2001, with technical assistance from Japanese legal academics from various universities in Japan through a JICA grant administered by the International Civil and Commercial Law Centre FoundationAccording to Se. 1305 the new Code did not take effect until transition law (Law on Application of the Civil Code) was promulgated on May 31, 2011 and set in effect on December 21, 2011.However, this Civil Code is not totally new to Cambodia as a similar Code applied for more than 55 years, until the Khmer Rouge abolished it. However the next section shows that even during this period of time ordinary Cambodians were not be familiar with the legislation imported from Europe. This introduction will help to cope with the difficulties which arise in applying the Civil Code in practice.