As a rule, responsibility in the legal understanding of ordinary people is expressed in the implementation of certain actions, the obligation to fulfill which is ensured by the state. How true is this statement when it comes to a legal institution such as civil liability?
The concept of civil liability
In the legal literature there are various approaches to what civil liability is. And, above all, the division is based on the signs of positivity or negativity.
According to jurists, under the civil liability in a positive sense, one should consider such a state of the debtor in which he undertakes and fulfills his obligations. On the contrary, civil liability in a negative sense is seen as a debtor incurring a certain punishment related to a violation of the rules of due conduct.
However, a deeper understanding of what is meant by civil liability is facilitated by the study of its main features, which include:
- a special type of legal liability ;
- this type of liability implies only property punishment of the debtor;
- in this case, the debtor as a person should not be punished (for example, the performance of forced labor);
- whatever the right is violated (personal non-property or property), the punishment should be expressed exclusively in the property equivalent, which appears either a strictly specified thing, or its monetary equivalent;
- debtor-creditor relations are built on an equal footing.
Thus, civil liability is a special special type of legal responsibility, in which the relationship between the creditor and the debtor are of an equal nature and are displayed only in property equivalent.
Forms of civil liability
When examining them, it should be remembered that the term civil liability is always meant in a negative sense, i.e. then when the harm is already done.
Science and law share 3 forms of civil liability:
- loss of deposit;
- compensation for losses;
- payment of the penalty.
Loss of deposit - applies only when the contract provides for the possibility of using it as a measure to ensure the transaction.
Indemnification is the most common form of liability under consideration. It consists in the fact that the debtor undertakes to compensate the creditor not only the damage incurred by him, but also the lost profit. A reservation is true that the lost profit is compensated only if there was a commercial element in the legal relationship.
Payment of the penalty is a kind of "safety element" of all commercial contracts. In this case, the emphasis is on compensation of a strictly defined amount of money in circumstances where the proper fulfillment of obligations has not been completed. Also, this type may include the obligation to pay a certain amount of money for the unlawful use of funds of third parties.
Types of civil liability
Regarding this classification, it is fair to take into account its division into two types: non-contractual and contractual. Such a division of civil liability received due to the use of various grounds for their occurrence.
As the name implies, contractual liability is based primarily on the contract and its terms. This circumstance seems important, since the text of the contract itself determines what constitutes a violation, in what cases and in what amounts liability will be calculated. Non-contractual liability arises from tort and unjust enrichment.
There are also other classifications:
- by the number of participants on the part of the debtor - shared, joint and several;
- direct, regressive and mixed - depends on who caused the harm.
As you can see, the institution of civil liability is an effective way to recover material damage without affecting the personality of the debtor.