Principles of performance of obligations in the system of liability law

The principles of fulfilling obligations play a fundamental role in the system of the Russian law of obligations. They are based on all legal relationships arising from both contracts and from causing harm through tort. The principles are the basic provisions that can not be ignored when drafting a civil law agreement.

Lawyers, as a rule, distinguish four principles. This is the principle of proper performance of obligations, real performance, good faith and cooperation. Each of these principles will be discussed in more detail below. Disclosure of the content of the principles in the article is based on both the current legislation and the Draft Civil Law.

The concept and principles of performance of obligations are fixed in section 3 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Chapter 22 of the Civil Code is devoted directly to the execution of various types of obligations.

The law prescribes to fulfill the obligation under the contract directly to the person indicated in the contract. Perhaps it will be the other party to the contract, if the agreement is concluded in favor of its participants. But also there are cases when the obligation should be executed in favor of another person, other than the person who is the second party to the contract. Fulfillment of the duty to the proper person in a specific time determined by the agreement in a specific place specified by the agreement is the fulfillment of the terms of the contract in the proper way. The draft amendment to the Civil Code provides that the obligation must be fulfilled in the light of the customs of business turnover if the parties do not agree on specific and unambiguous conditions for its implementation.

Under the actual performance of the duty, the party to the transaction means the implementation of any specific actions (or inaction, if such conduct of the person is justified as the proper and necessary performance of the contract by the parties themselves). The will of the person to fulfill the duty must be manifested outwardly and understood by the counterparty. One will is not enough: an indispensable component of this principle is the will.

The principles of fulfilling the obligation correlate with the general principles of private law, among which the principle of conscientiousness occupies a special place. The conscientiousness of participants in legal relations is presumed. However, if the obligation is not fulfilled or fully executed, then the absence of guilt, that is, the existence of good faith, a party that has not actually committed the necessary actions, is obliged to prove. The principle of conscientiousness and the presumption of guilt in civil circulation counterbalance the strength of each other. The development of the principle of conscientiousness depends entirely on the level of public sense of justice and on the level of business culture in society.

Cooperation in the performance of a specific obligation allows us to achieve the objective of a civil law agreement more quickly. Cooperation should not be confused with a compromise: with compromise, each side has insignificant losses for joint achievement of the goal, and with the cooperation of the two sides becomes more profitable than before. Neither side sacrifices its own interests. Principles of performance of obligations contribute to increasing the efficiency of civil and legal turnover, and it is the cooperation of counterparties that allows them to achieve the best results in the framework of contractual relations.

Obligations may be shared or joint. With an equity commitment, each debtor fulfills the obligation only in the established part. The creditor has no right to demand from the debtor to fulfill the share of another debtor. If the agreement or the text of the law establishes a joint performance of an obligation, the creditor has the right to force any of the debtors to perform such an obligation in a certain amount to the creditor.