Project News

[Event date(s): August 2 - 9, 2011]

Ministry of Justice and JICA held a dissemination seminar for the Law on Application of Civil Code, Security Rights and Succession under the Civil Code at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC) from 2nd to 9th August due to the fact that the Law on Application of Civil Code and the Civil Code will be enacted in Cambodia in December 2011. The two members of the supporting group on the Civil Code in Japan—Toshifumi Minami (judge of the Tokyo high court) and Toyohiro Nomura (professor in the faculty of law at the Gakusyuin University) were dispatched for the seminar. Even though the seminar lasted for 6 days, the seminar was continuously attended by officials of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, judges and attorneys (with total of 120 participants) from all over Cambodia.

The topics of this seminar was about the change of the security system from the ‘gage' system of the 2001 Land Law to a hypothec system as provided in the Law on Application of Civil Code, Security Rights, Succession and Relevant Registration System. The theme was very difficult. However, since the lecturers were the drafters of the Law on Application of Civil Code, and security right and succession in Civil Code, the lecturer gave the presentation that was easy to understand for the participants.

The presentation started with the issue of which laws (laws of the old system or Civil Code) judges should apply to cases before and following the implementation of the Civil Code. In addition, the lecturer explained the systematic changes to security rights from those of gages to hypothecs.

Subsequently, the hypothec and revolving hypothec system which are newly created in Civil Code were presented. It particularly notes worthy that the lecturers explained the relevant registration system followed by the lecture on the hypothec and revolving hypothec.

Finally, the lecturer presented on the statutory succession system, the partitioning of succession property, the legally secured portion and its relevant registration system. In the question and answer session following the lectures, the participants asked cross cutting questions on Sub-Decree 38, the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure.

The seminar was very fruitful, and thus our project will publish the contents of the lectures, combining the resume, and question and answer sessions for further dissemination.

Moreover, from this point onward, Ministry of Justice and JICA plan to hold other seminars in September and November, and JICA plans to delegate two lecturers to each seminar in the same manner as this seminar.