Review Article
Vol.11, No 2, 2013 pp. 105-119
UDC 347.232
RESTITUTION AND CIVIL LIABILITY FOR INFRINGEMENT OF SUBJECTIVE RIGHTS
Ivana Simonović
Faculty of Law, University of Niš, Serbia
E-mail: ivana@prafak.ni.ac.rs
Transfer of assets between two or more parties may arise from a variety of distinctive facts, some of which are based on the parties' will (usually contractual will) while others are fully unrelated or even contrary to their will. In situations where this patrimonial transfer constitutes a loss for one party and an unjustified gain for another (either ill-founded or fully unjustified), the legal order demands that the enriched party shall return the unjustly acquired benefit and thus re-establish the prior state of affairs. The legal rules governing the re-establishment of patrimonial rights and interests constitute a legal institute called restitution. In this article, restitution is perceived as a specific instrument for the enforcement of civil liability and its sanction, in cases where both liability and sanction are a reaction to the unjustified shift of benefit from one party to another. The author examines the most common legal grounds for seeking restitution: unjustified (unjust) enrichment and the reversal of performances rendered under a void, voidable or unilaterally breached contract, but also points out that restitutionary rules can also be applied for recovering benefit acquired by infringement of one's absolute rights (instead of rules on damages). Although these legal relations pertain to different parts of the law of obligations, their common denominators are: the unjustified acquisition of benefit (unjust enrichment) and the duty of the enriched party to reverse the enrichment to the disadvantaged (impoverished) party who is entitled to it. The primary aim of all restitution claims is the reversal of unjustly acquired benefit and this goal is accomplished by applying the restitutionary rules. We think that adjusting these rules to the characteristics of a specific legal relation does not undermine the cohesion of restitution as a legal institute, which is ensured by its common purpose – restitutio in integrum.
Key words:
restitution, civil liability and sanction, unjustified (unjust) enrichment, contract, damage, protection of absolute individual rights.
RESTITUCIJA I GRAĐANSKOPRAVNA ODGOVORNOST ZBOG POVREDE SUBJEKTIVNIH PRAVA
Promene u imovinama dvaju ili više lica mogu biti posledica više različitih činjenica, nekih nastalih voljom zainteresovanih subjekata, najčešće manifestovanoj u formi ugovora, nekih, pak, nastalih nezavisno od njihove volje ili čak protivno njoj. U slučajevima u kojima se promena iskazuje kao imovinski gubitak jednog lica praćen uvećanjem imovine drugog, ali bez valjanog ili ikakvog pravnog osnova, pravni poredak nalaže da se svakome vrati njegovo i uspostavi pređašnje stanje. Pravna pravila po kojima se ovo odvija obrazuju pravni institut restitucije. U radu se restituciji prišlo kao naročitom sredstvu realizacije građanskopravne odgovornosti i njene sankcije, i to ukoliko se njima reaguje na pravno neopravdano pomeranje koristi iz imovine jednog lica u imovinu drugog. Razmatrani su sticanje bez osnova i ispunjenje činidaba nevažećeg ili jednostrano raskinutog ugovora, ali i mogućnost da se, umesto pravilima o nadoknadi štete prouzrokovane apsolutnim pravima, ova zaštite restitutivnim pravilima, i to ukoliko je štetnik (pored prouzrokovanja štete) ostvario i neku korist. Navedenim pravnim institutima može se pridružiti i zaštita svojine reivindikacionom tužbom, koja je per excellence restitutivnog usmerenja. U radu ona nije razmatrana, već pomenuta kao dodatni argument o sveprisutnosti restitucije u građanskom pravu. Nabrojani pravni odnosi pripadaju različitim granama građanskog prava (obligacionom i stvarnom),ali povezuju ih neosnovano sticanje koristi i obaveza njenog vraćanja, koja se izvršava primenom pravila o restituciji. Prilagođavanje ovih pravila osobenostima konkretnog pravnog odnosa, smatramo, ne narušava jedinstvenost restitucije kao instituta, koja biva obezbeđena zajedničkim ciljem njene primene a on je uspostavljanje pređašnjeg stanja (restitutio in integrum).
Ključne reči:
restitucija, građanskoprana odgovornost i sankcija, neosnovano obogaćenje, ugovor, šteta, zaštita apsolutnih prava.
