At a meeting on October 24, the Estonian government repealed and amended more than 50 laws, including invalidating the civil code of the Estonian SSR. This Interfax reports. was stated by Minister of Justice Hanno Pevkur,

“The main reason for the thorough audit was the desire to put an end to the situation where the laws of the previous government are in force in the republic,” the official said.

According to him, four paragraphs of the Soviet-era civil code are still in force in Estonia. They relate to state payments for damage to the employee’s health. “The Code was adopted at a time when there was no private property and the state was the only employer. Now these provisions are outdated, issues are regulated by new laws,” the minister clarified. He did not specify what other legislative acts were repealed.

The government's decision must still be approved by the republic's parliament. There is no word on when he will review it. At the same time, Pevkur called on the deputies “to do everything so that the code adopted in 1964 does not celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonian civil law changed significantly (in particular, the rights of private property, freedom of enterprise, and so on were restored). In 1992, the authorities decided to gradually adopt a new Civil Code, which should replace the Soviet version. The document was ready two years later, after which changes and additions were made to it. Its new version came into force at the beginning of 2013.

Let us note that in Estonia, the period when the republic was part of the USSR and lived under the rule of the Communist Party is officially regarded as “occupation”.

The Estonian government got rid of Soviet laws