The Phenomenon of Decausalization as a Challenge for Financial Market Regulation

The purpose of the article is to verify the thesis on possible interconnection between the phenomenon of decausalization observed in the French legal system and financial market law regulations. The concept of decausalization was mainly exposed and emphasized in connection with one of the largest amendments of the French Civil Code introduced in 2016, and is understood as the gradual displacement of causa as the imperative element of the legal relationship. A different approach to the existence of causa may be considered as a concept that could be adapted in financial market law due to the way in which the definition of a financial instrument is regulated in both Polish and French law. These regulations refer directly or indirectly to the contractual obligations, which makes them sensitive to potential conceptual changes in this matter. The methodology used by the author is related to the functional approach of the comparative legal method, the historical-descriptive and the dogmatic method, with special focus on the French law regulations. The adopted method will allow to understand the described regulations in a much broader context, i.e. at the supranational level. The potential broader use of the decausalization concept may have a significant importance especially on the financial market, that is a very specific legal framework marked by the influence of the common law system and substantial presence of soft-law rules. The fact that the phenomenon of decausalization was not a scope of deeper analysis in Polish law, makes that the present article may not only be considered as a presentation of this phenomenon but also as an impulse for further interdisciplinary studies and interesting conclusions. In particular, the postulate of referring to the concept of contractual obligations within the financial market law may constitute an alternative to the creation of new regulations in this matter and be one of the elements enabling the adaptation of legal regulations to dynamic technological progress.