Ultra posse nemo obligatur

The maxim ultra posse nemo obligatur (Latin: About the skill addition, no person shall ) states that a moral or legal obligation to a power that is impossible, can not exist. This applies both when the performance objective ( = impossible ), so for everyone, and if the performance subjectively ( = failure ), ie, it is impossible for the debtor. Another formulation is: Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur ( to the impossible, no one can be forced ).

For the German civil law this principle in § 275 paragraph 2 BGB for the objective impossibility and in paragraph 3 is regulated for the subjective impossibility. A similar principle of law represents impossibilium nulla est obligatio, which can account for a liability in objective or subjective impossibility operation of law ( ipso iure ) (§ 275 para 1 BGB). However, the principle does not provide information about possible compensation claims or the price risk.

In criminal law, this thought comes in Fahrlässigkeits and omission offenses to fruition, such as the justifying conflict of duty. He also takes in administrative law on the question of whether a claim for action of an authority may be, apply.

In ethics the limitation of moral duties by doable is the only form, without a violation of Hume's Law of the factual to deduce normative. Such conclusions, however, are purely negative and positive values ​​or standards can not justify.

Others

• Latin in the right