Commercial law

The commercial law is the law of business people. Its specialty consists in the fact that the general principles of the German Civil Code are amended by specialties of business dealings which often go back to customary business practices. These modifications are often unknown and may have far reaching consequences. For instance, the commercial law provides for a specific duty of the buyer to examine the goods and to notify the seller of defects. If he fails to comply with this duty, he may loose his warranty claims. The statutory provisions on auxiliaries of the entrepreneur like authorized officers, authorized agents and commercial clerks, including the legally determined scope of their power of representation are also a part of the commercial law. Moreover, the area of commercial law comprises the law on general conditions as well as the legal provisions on agency and distributorship. However, since these are rather complex, they deserve a separate chapter.