Analysis of New Rule on Form of Power of Attorney in Serbian Law with Reference to Legal Approaches in Selected European Countries

In the paper, the author analyses the amendment of Article 90 of the Law on Obligations by which the legislator deviated from the application of parallelism of forms between the power of attorney and the contract concluded on its basis. This change occurred as a result of the introduction of new types of contract forms into the legal system of the Republic of Serbia. The legislator opted for the so-called modified parallelism of forms, which implies that the power of attorney given for conclusion of a contract for which the form of a notary public record or a notary public certified (solemnized) private document is prescribed can also be composed in the form of a notary public signature verification. The paper first points out the circumstances that led to the question of whether it was necessary to change the Article 90 which stipulated parallelism of forms that had been in force since the adoption of the Law on Obligations in 1978. In the next part of the paper the author presents the arguments of Serbian doctrine and the legislator in favour of this change. In addition, the paper further presents the provisions regulating the form of power of attorney in the law of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well as the views of the doctrine and judicial practice in these countries. In the end, the author provides the analysis of the criteria and arguments by which the Serbian legislator was guided when changing the rule on parallelism of forms between the main contract and power of attorney in the context of the previously presented legal rules, positions of doctrine and judicial practice in the aforementioned countries.