Allmän lojalitetsplikt - ett spöke i avtalsrätten
(2017) LAGF03 20171Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Friheten att ingå avtal och skyldigheten att hålla avgivna löften är två fundamentala principer på det obligationsrättsliga området. Dessa rättigheter balanseras av en skyldighet att iaktta och tillvarata medkontrahentens intressen: lojalitetsplikten. Avsikten med denna uppsats är att undersöka en kontraktuell lojalitetshänsyn i den svenska respektive engelska rättsordningen. I den svenska obligationsrätten kommer jag fokusera på lojalitetsplikt, medan jag i den engelska rätten kommer utgå från principen om good faith. Båda begreppen är som idéer vedertagna på ett teoretiskt plan, men kontroversiella i den meningen att det råder delade meningar kring om de utgör allmänna rättsprinciper.
Medan lojalitetsplikten, för svenskt vidkommande,... (More) - Friheten att ingå avtal och skyldigheten att hålla avgivna löften är två fundamentala principer på det obligationsrättsliga området. Dessa rättigheter balanseras av en skyldighet att iaktta och tillvarata medkontrahentens intressen: lojalitetsplikten. Avsikten med denna uppsats är att undersöka en kontraktuell lojalitetshänsyn i den svenska respektive engelska rättsordningen. I den svenska obligationsrätten kommer jag fokusera på lojalitetsplikt, medan jag i den engelska rätten kommer utgå från principen om good faith. Båda begreppen är som idéer vedertagna på ett teoretiskt plan, men kontroversiella i den meningen att det råder delade meningar kring om de utgör allmänna rättsprinciper.
Medan lojalitetsplikten, för svenskt vidkommande, tillmäts en auktoritativ roll i doktrin, är de dömande instanserna restriktiva i att grunda sin juridiska argumentation på en sådan skyldighet.
Men lojalitetspliktens popularitet är en relativt ny företeelse. Det var inte länge sedan den helt förkastades och mycket av den forskning som finns på området har producerats inom loppet av två decennier. I den engelska rätten har frågan om good faith avgjorts i flera omtalade rättsfall sedan 1970-talet. I samtliga fall med ett nekande svar på frågan om principen kan erkännas som en generell norm.
Grunden bakom en juridisk lojalitetsskyldighet kan spåras till den romerska rätten, även om härledningen inte är rak och självklar. Idén ligger även mycket nära Aristoteles än äldre rättfilosofiska skälighetsresonemang.
Lojalitetsplikten har relevans vid tolkning och utfyllning av avtal. Men både den engelska och svenska rätten har utvecklat en mångfald av andra rättsinstitut som behandlar skälighet och inskränker parternas avtalsfrihet.
I kritiken mot en allmän lojalitetsplikt blir det särskilt tydligt att det är två i grunden olika rättssystem som är föremål för uppsatsen. Medan den engelska rätten ofta faller tillbaka på rättssäkerhetsargument och individuella hänsyn, är den svenska kritiken mer präglad av rättsekonomiska hänsyn och nyttoargument. (Less) - Abstract
- The freedom of contract and pacta sunt servanda are two fundamental principles within the law of obligations. They are indeed rights, restricted by a duty to (faithfully) recognize and to observe the other party’s interests – a duty of loyalty (lojalitetsplikt). The purpose of this thesis is to compare the contractual duties of loyalty in the Swedish and English legal systems, respectively.
The subjects for my research are lojalitetsplikten, within the Swedish contract law, and as for my english perspective: good faith. They are both concepts accepted and acknowledged in theory, but nevertheless controversial in the sense that they invoke different meanings as to their criteria of existence: are they rules, principles or just mere... (More) - The freedom of contract and pacta sunt servanda are two fundamental principles within the law of obligations. They are indeed rights, restricted by a duty to (faithfully) recognize and to observe the other party’s interests – a duty of loyalty (lojalitetsplikt). The purpose of this thesis is to compare the contractual duties of loyalty in the Swedish and English legal systems, respectively.
The subjects for my research are lojalitetsplikten, within the Swedish contract law, and as for my english perspective: good faith. They are both concepts accepted and acknowledged in theory, but nevertheless controversial in the sense that they invoke different meanings as to their criteria of existence: are they rules, principles or just mere concepts of morality?
Whereas a duty of loyalty can be viewed as generally accepted in the Swedish jurisprudence, it is rarely referred to by the courts. They maintain restrictive in using the principle in their reasoning.
However, the duty of loyalty has only recently become popular. The idea of a duty of loyalty used to be discarded, which is why the vast, qualified research on the topic has been produced by legal scholars within a couple of decades. Good faith has been subject to quite a few cases since the 1970s. English law, however, has not changed its view on the matter: a general duty of loyalty is not recognized.
The idea of a legal concept of loyalty can be traced, although not without difficulties, to the ancient roman law. It is related on an ideological basis to Aristotle’s philosophical notion on equity.
The duty of loyalty is of relevance when construing, and implying, terms into agreements.
The Swedish and the English legal systems have respectively developed multiple tools to deal with problems arising in regard to unjust issues, setting boundaries to parties’ freedom of contract.
Within the critical perspective on the duty of loyalty it becomes quite clear that the legal systems penetrated in this paper are fundamentally different. The English legal system has a market-individualistic perspective as well as concerns regarding legal certainty and predictability, while in Sweden, law and economics and utility is of greater concern. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8908542
- author
- Brandt, Martin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- LAGF03 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Avtalsrätt, allmän lojalitetsplikt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8908542
- date added to LUP
- 2017-07-01 18:00:51
- date last changed
- 2017-07-01 18:00:51
@misc{8908542,
abstract = {{The freedom of contract and pacta sunt servanda are two fundamental principles within the law of obligations. They are indeed rights, restricted by a duty to (faithfully) recognize and to observe the other party’s interests – a duty of loyalty (lojalitetsplikt). The purpose of this thesis is to compare the contractual duties of loyalty in the Swedish and English legal systems, respectively.
The subjects for my research are lojalitetsplikten, within the Swedish contract law, and as for my english perspective: good faith. They are both concepts accepted and acknowledged in theory, but nevertheless controversial in the sense that they invoke different meanings as to their criteria of existence: are they rules, principles or just mere concepts of morality?
Whereas a duty of loyalty can be viewed as generally accepted in the Swedish jurisprudence, it is rarely referred to by the courts. They maintain restrictive in using the principle in their reasoning.
However, the duty of loyalty has only recently become popular. The idea of a duty of loyalty used to be discarded, which is why the vast, qualified research on the topic has been produced by legal scholars within a couple of decades. Good faith has been subject to quite a few cases since the 1970s. English law, however, has not changed its view on the matter: a general duty of loyalty is not recognized.
The idea of a legal concept of loyalty can be traced, although not without difficulties, to the ancient roman law. It is related on an ideological basis to Aristotle’s philosophical notion on equity.
The duty of loyalty is of relevance when construing, and implying, terms into agreements.
The Swedish and the English legal systems have respectively developed multiple tools to deal with problems arising in regard to unjust issues, setting boundaries to parties’ freedom of contract.
Within the critical perspective on the duty of loyalty it becomes quite clear that the legal systems penetrated in this paper are fundamentally different. The English legal system has a market-individualistic perspective as well as concerns regarding legal certainty and predictability, while in Sweden, law and economics and utility is of greater concern.}},
author = {{Brandt, Martin}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Allmän lojalitetsplikt - ett spöke i avtalsrätten}},
year = {{2017}},
}