Damages Recovery Claims Regulation in Civil Code of RF and in Principles of European Contractand Tort Law

Abstract

Liability constitutes a key concept of the Civil Law science. Its universal implication lies in the monetization of another person's negative property consequences and the assignment of its financial results to the complicit party. In the present paper the evolution of the said legal institution is reviewed. At the dawn of our civilization the liability manifested a response to a non-compliance with prescriptions of law and represented a fine to be paid in a multiple amount of the loss. As our society progressed, we started classifying the monetary repressions into civil and criminal liability, into liability acting as a response to personal affronts and liability for failure to perform contractual or non-contractual property obligations. At the same time penalty failed to restore one's financial position in some cases and, conversely, allowed for abuse of rights. Another way of legal protection became widely adopted — damages for losses. The concept of loss of profit was also accepted into widespread professional use as an important component of damages. The Russian Civil Code provided for the development of the said instrument, as it was defined as “future losses for the restoration of the violated right”. Unfortunately, at the present time it does not find a widespread application among litigants. Judges also fail to comprehend such a broad understanding of possible damages. The comparison between the traditional and modern concepts regarding this issue found its reflection in the corresponding chapter. The structure of gross domestic product (GDP) with prevailing services sector is the economic parameter of the post-industrial society and its fundamental attribute. The civil liability of service producers is of a much stricter nature. For instance, they are forced to pay damages for a rightful unilateral repudiation of the contract, no matter customers are citizens or not, whereas the legal tradition prescribes to pay damages only if the party acted in breach of law. In the present work the author draws a conclusion on the increasing importance of damages and their new role.