In other words, in-kind obligations are called obligations of trust and honor. After all, they arise in the same way as they are fulfilled - in accordance with the duty of conscience, the desire for justice. Thus, they connect civil law with public morality. How do they differ from other types of obligations? This will be discussed.
Obligations of conscience
One of the evidence of the morality of civil law is the presence in it of the so-called natural obligations, or obligations of conscience. Not every legal phenomenon has such a large number of epithets.
To emphasize their certain inferiority, in the legal literature they are characterized as:
- weakened;
- abnormal;
- incomplete;
- informal;
- fake.
At the same time, they are referred to as obligations:
- conscience;
- honor;
- trust;
- moral;
- generated by justice.
Natural and natural
In accordance with the origins of this civil construction, they are called natural, or natural. In this case, it is understood that the fulfillment of such obligations is natural, even when their fulfillment does not entail any legal consequences.
The main feature of in-kind obligations is that they are not protected under a civil lawsuit. But at the same time, they are not considered insignificant. And their execution on a voluntary basis is not unjust enrichment. This type of obligation connects civil law with public morality, as they are executed at the behest of conscience and because of the desire for justice.
Natural Obligations in Roman Law
The history of the type of obligation under consideration is instructive. They were born in ancient Rome by private law. The prerequisites for its occurrence are seen in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks. It distinguished two types of phenomena: those that exist by virtue of the law, the dictates of power, and those that are generated by nature itself.
Natural obligations were considered as belonging to the natural world, although at the same time they had a certain civil law effect. Its essence lies in the fact that the participants in the civil turnover did not have the opportunity to demand back what has already been paid.
But at the same time, it was not provided with legal protection, and consequently, the creditor was not able to achieve the enforcement of rights by forced means.
Scope of application
These obligations were widespread in ancient Rome:
- Firstly, they included obligations that resulted from “insufficient form” agreements. That is, of those that did not satisfy the formal conditions. Among them, for example, loan agreements in which interest was not specified.
- Secondly, these are obligations that arose as a punishment of the creditor as a result of the expiration of the limitation period.
- Thirdly, such were considered obligations undertaken by a slave, subservient son, and a person under guardianship and trusteeship. This group of obligations, as is commonly believed, was determined by the very essence of the slave system, the need for comprehensive protection of the interests of slave owners. Although their origins were nevertheless initially seen in justice and a humane attitude to the subjects and slaves.
- Fourthly, in kind obligations also included those based on the requirements of decency and morality.It is this group that enjoys special sympathies, causing jurists to not miss the very idea of their possible existence, supporting it with civil law means.
So, the type of obligations under consideration was due to necessity and was born in Ancient Rome. It was convenient and widely used in practice.
Natural Obligations in the Civil Law of the Russian Federation
Do they exist? In 2015, there was an intention to include this institution in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The idea from the point of view of civil circulation looked very attractive. But in the end, the legislator did not dare to take this step. However, this does not mean that in civil law of Russia there are no natural obligations as such.
As indicated, they are understood as natural (natural) obligations under which the claims of creditors are not subject to judicial protection. A debtor who has fulfilled a natural obligation has no right to demand the return of the executed.
These obligations are not allocated to a separate subgroup of obligations arising from unilateral transactions or contracts, because they are opposed to all other obligations secured by judicial protection.
Lawyers distinguish such natural obligations as:
- contractual arising in connection with the holding of games and betting;
- obligatory claims with the statute of limitations missed by the creditor, since voluntary execution performed by the debtor is not subject to reverse demand.
In the second case, it refers to any obligations of a civil law nature that are covered by the statute of limitations. Since whether the court applies the legal consequences of skipping the statute of limitations depends on the statement made by the party to the dispute, turning the obligation into “zadnennoy” completely depends on the opposite side of the dispute. So, the assignment of obligations to natural will not be objective, but subjective.
In addition, the type under consideration includes obligations undertaken by minors, legally incapable persons who do not have the right to conclude agreements under the law. As well as transactions, the form of which is not in accordance with the law.
In conclusion, it should be noted that it is necessary to distinguish the studied type of obligations from obligations in kind, since the latter only require payment for the services provided or work performed not in money but in goods agreed upon by the parties in the agreement.