CLH ARTICLE: Mehmed BECIC, The Commercial Law for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1883: A legal transplant debate perspective (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 2 (December), pp. 222-251)

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Abstract: 

The subject of this article is the Commercial Law for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1883. This law represented a legal transplant of German commercial law. At the time of its adoption in 1883, the Commercial Law did not represent a mirror of society. However, archival sources point to the fact that the government did not actually aim to impose a law that reflected the socio-economic conditions or business and commercial practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The imposition of this legal transplant was aimed at unifying commercial law in a unified customs territory. A contextual analysis, based on archival sources, economic policies and economic history, confirmed that the government was interested in imposing precisely this kind of legal solution (legal transplant) to achieve specific legal, social and economic effects and transform the existing socio-legal and economic system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2579472