The foundations of creditor's liability in gratuitous contracts in Croatian medieval law

Abstract

Gratuitous contracts (bailments) are the most common legal affairs in everyday legal transactions. On the one hand, their informal nature that distinguishes them from other legal affairs facilitates their application; on the other hand, it complicates the legal position of the contracting parties in case of breach of contractual obligations. Liability for breach of contractual obligation equally affects both contracting parties: the creditor and the debtor. In accordance with the principle of utility, the debtor is a contracting party that benefits most from the conclusion of a gratuitous contract. However, the discussions about the creditor's obligations and the liability criteria have been quite rare ever since the development of the earliest legal systems. This is not surprising given the fact that the gratuitous contracts are, almost as a rule, concluded between friends and acquaintances, and marked by the trust of the contracting parties. The foundations of the privileged liability of creditors, both in Western European legal systems and in Croatian law, are based on Roman law principles, which have been entered into the modern law of obligations through reception of the ius commune legal norms. As the issue of creditors' liability in gratuitous contracts has not been sufficiently examined in the Croatian scientific literature, this research is aimed at exploring and establishing the legal grounds of liability of the lender (creditor), the depositor, and the donor in Croatian law, by analyzing and comparing the available historical sources of Croatian medieval law. In that context, the authors will also discuss in more detail the reasons for enacting the unique legal solutions contained in the Croatian Obligations Act.