Commercial Law: is it Special?

Jan Hellner was one of Sweden’s greatest lawyers of the last century. His vast grip over an astonishingly large number of subjects and his ability to write in English, French, German, Swedish and occasionally in Spanish earned him a great reputation. Hellner was honoured with a Festskrift, but his many writings have never been assembled in Collected writings. For his friends this has not been a problem. Many were on the mailing list of his Julskrifter, which Jan Hellner compiled almost every year in the period 1972–2001. It is an honour to write in a volume dedicated to his memory. In this paper, I want to address a question which Hellner might himself have selected for this collection of essays. It is the special – or not so special – position of Commercial Law. Is Commercial Law a separate subject? The issue may appear somewhat obsolete, but it is not. The plans to harmonise private law on a European level will sooner or later bring it to the fore. In the paper, I will remind readers why a separate Commercial Law has come into being