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The impact of the reason for undertaking an obligation on the validity of legal transactions
Saša Nikšić
Sažetak
The legal system limits the freedom of making contracts by prescribing preconditions that have to be met if a legal transaction is to be considered valid. Although there is a considerable correspondence between different continental European legal systems and common law systems regarding the preconditions for the validity of legal transactions, there is one precondition which is pointed out as specific for individual legal systems. It is the so-called cause of obligation (causa finalis) which, originally meant “the reason for which the obligation was undertaken”. This is required as a precondition for validity in legal systems based on Roman law. Although the Croatian system is usually considered to belong to the German legal family, before the new Law on Obligatory Relations the existence of the permissible basis for contractual obligation was required to ensure the validity of a legal transaction.
After the new Law on Obligatory Relations came into force, the basis of the contractual obligation is not foreseen as a precondition for validity of contractual obligation. This does not mean that reasons for undertaking an obligation have completely lost their earlier meaning in the new Law on Obligatory Relations, and that the non-existence of the reason for undertaking an obligation has no impact on the creation of the obligatory legal relation. The essence of the change is in the fact that there is no general rule foreseeing the reasons for undertaking an obligation as a precondition of the validity of a legal transaction. A large number of special rules still require the existence of a reason for undertaking an obligation for the creation of an obligatory legal relation, so that in that case it is not necessary to prescribe reasons for undertaking an obligation as a precondition for the validity of a legal transaction. If a legal transaction cannot come into being without a reason for undertaking an obligation, then it is impossible to speak of its validity or invalidity. In addition, reasons for undertaking an obligation cannot emerge in legal transactions in which an obligation has not been undertaken. Therefore the rule from the previous Law on Obligatory Relations regarding the basis of contractual obligation was not applied at all. It can be pointed out that a change of the rules on preconditions of validity of a legal transaction regarding the impact of the reason for undertaking an obligation on the validity of legal transaction is not as radical as it may seem at first sight.
Ključne riječi
reasons for undertaking an obligation; cause of obligation; , basis of contractual obligation; validity of legal transaction
Hrčak ID:
6424
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.12.2006.
Posjeta: 5.166 *