At the beginning of this book, I compared studying Bulgarian private law to listening to an opera in a foreign language. I shared my belief that with a programme in hand and some surtitles, a spectator may not only understand what is happening on the stage but may also appreciate the performance. The main goal I hope to have achieved with this book is introducing foreign readers to the key parts of the Bulgarian legal stage, shedding light on the distinctive features of the performance, and exposing some of the backstage secrets which are not even well known to the Bulgarian audience.

There are many reasons why I believe that a comparison between an opera and Bulgarian private law or even Bulgarian law in general seems fit. The word ‘opera’ comes from Italian and means ‘work’ both in the sense of labour and result. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘the preparation of an opera performance involves the work of many individuals whose total contributions sometimes spread across a century or more’. This observation fully applies to Bulgarian law. Bulgarian private law today is the product of the labour and contributions of numerous jurists across more than a century – as we saw, despite radical political shifts, each period of historical development has left an imprint on Bulgarian law.

The art of opera is dramatic – there are unexpected, dangerous scenes and plot twists. The same can be said about the evolution of Bulgarian private law. The dramatic political transformations have had a palpable impact both on the Bulgarian legal stage and the mood of the performance – doctrines have disappeared and spontaneously reappeared, jurists and their work have been anathematised but subsequently resurrected, pieces of legislation have been repealed but much later used to inspire contemporary laws.

Opera is known to adapt to the changing tastes of audiences. The same opera can be staged in a very different way depending on the country and the expectations of the spectators. In a similar fashion, Bulgarian law made borrowed doctrines and entire piece of legislation its own because it had to respond to the legal needs and expectations of Bulgarian society.