Quasi-contract

Legal obligation is a legal concept in the law of obligations, including all legal relations between creditor and debtor that trigger the applicability of certain statutory provisions based on their behavior. Contrast are the contractual obligations that come through conclusion of certain agreements of daily life into existence.

General

According to § 311 para 1 BGB, a contract is required for the establishment of an obligation by legal transaction. If a sales contract closed about, the provisions of the purchase contract law, which belong to the contractual obligations and trigger mutual contractual obligations apply. This applies to all types of contracts of daily life. However, there are facts to which the provisions relating to contractual obligations do not fit, but according to the law will a legal relationship between creditors and debtors is to be built.

Legal Obligations

To capture these facts, the legislature has created so-called statutory obligations. So granted the statutory obligation of the tort in the case of the body or property injury compensatory damages, though - and perhaps because - often there are no contractual relationship between the tortfeasor and injured party from which a damage compensation could be derived. Damage claim and obligation to Schadenstragung arise automatically from § § 823 ff BGB if the parties meet the conditions by their behavior.

Types of legal obligations

Legal obligations arise from the fact that are satisfied by a certain behavior, legally prescribed conditions under which someone is committed to a performance. These legal obligations include, in particular:

  • Agency without authority (§ § 677 - § 687 BGB),
  • Unjust enrichment (§ § 812 - § 822 BGB),
  • Tort ( § § 823 - § 853 BGB).

With the unjustified enrichment (§ § 812 ff BGB) are quite gratuitous transfers of assets be undone.

The legal concept of legal obligation is it used in § 4 para 1 Renewable Energy Act that grid operators must not make conclusion of a contract depends on their obligations under this Act. This ensures that obligations of network operators on the basis of a legal obligation inevitably arise. An agreement under private law is certainly not necessary to establish a contractual obligation.

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