Problems of legal regulation of delay interest as a type of civil liability for breach of monetary obligations in Ukraine

Abstract

This article is devoted to the theoretical study of the legal regulation of delay interest as a type of civil liability for breach of mo -ne tary obligations under Ukrainian law. It is the contractual sanctions, that are one of the most important parts of the contract as theyinduce the parties to comply with their obligations. In addition, sanctions are of a dual legal nature – they are both means of ensuringthe performance of the obligations and a measure of liability for a dishonest contractor. Liability for breach of monetary obligations ischaracterized by conflicting legal provisions and ambiguous court practice. For example, under the Civil Code of Ukraine delay interestand a penalty are regarded as types of forfeit, while in the Economic Code of Ukraine forfeit is treated as a separate type of sanction.However, in the absence of separate definitions of each sanction in the Economic Code of Ukraine, it is unclear as to the meaningintended by the legislator in particular in the concept of “forfeit”. This situation complicates the understanding of legal concepts andrequires a regulatory specification of such provisions in legislative acts. Based on the theoretical analysis, it is necessary to develop scientificallygrounded proposals and recommendations for improvement of law making and law enforcement activities. The legal characteristicsand peculiarities of the delay interest as a type of civil liability are investigated in the article.As a result of a comparative analysis of the regulations in the Civil Code of Ukraine and the Economic Code of Ukraine, the followingdifferences and contradictions were summarized and noted: a) different approach to the definition of “delay interest”; b) unequalapproach to the question of types of obligations to which delay interest can be applied; c) differences in the calculating of delay interestfor breach of a monetary obligation procedures.In order to effectively resolve disputes, the author notes the need to implement unification of the Civil Code of Ukraine with theEconomic Code of Ukraine at the national level and to establish clear rules for the application of delay interest for non-compliance withmonetary obligations.