INTRODUCTION

This chapter showcases the particularities of Bulgarian contract law by exploring its key doctrines and rules as they emerge from legislation, scholarly writing, and case law. While many principles will resonate with continental lawyers, they have a distinct flavour because of the complex heritage and historic transformations which the law of obligations has experienced in Bulgaria. Other rules of contract, by contrast, are not only rarely seen in other continental legal systems, but also can be deemed unique features of Bulgarian law because they have been moulded to such extent that their origin is not immediately recognisable. Above all, the Bulgarian judge has accumulated some interventionist powers which evidence that the Bulgarian legislator often prioritises fairness over freedom of contract.

WHAT IS A CONTRACT?

The radical transformations of Bulgaria’s political and economic system led to profound changes in the definition of contract. The current version of Article 8, paragraph 1 of the Law on Obligations and Contracts (LOC) stipulates:

This version of Article 8 was introduced to the LOC in 1993 as part of the major reform of the law of obligations aimed at adapting this law to the needs of a market economy, as discussed in Chapter 2. This 1993 amendment reintroduced almost verbatim the definition of contract which Bulgaria had embraced in Article 2 of the LOC of 1892, which, as already explained, copied many of the provisions of the section dedicated to obligations in the Italian Civil Code of 1865.

Prior to the reform of 1993, Article 8 of the LOC contained a heavily ideological definition reflecting the values of Marxism – Leninism. It stated:

In communist times, contract law had to primarily serve the fulfilment of the people’s economic plan, which was the prerogative of the Bulgarian Communist Party.