The doctrine of consideration in english contract law and related legal constructions in the law of countries of the romano-german legal family

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the doctrine of consideration in Anglo-American law and similar legal constructions in the law of the countries of the Romano-Germanic legal family. On the basis of foreign studies of the doctrine of consideration, the author finds out the legal nature of this doctrine in contract law. Attention is focused on the fact that consideration is associated with the categories of interest, good, benefit, benefit, loss. It is indicated that consideration is an essential condition for the validity of any contract, including an informal one. An attempt is made to compare the doctrine of consideration with the concept of cause of transaction in the RomanoGermanic legal family, which was developed due to the reception of Roman law. Summary of the main research results. Reasonable causes as promises to carry out an exchange of certain goods brings this concept closer to the doctrine of consideration. However, the ambiguity of the term “causa” in the sources of Roman law (motive, purpose, result, basis) makes it impossible to find the origins of the doctrine of consideration in the Roman concepts of causa, as indicated in the article. The modern understanding of the cause of action as the goal that the parties seek to achieve when entering into a contract is also different from the doctrine of consideration. The author emphasizes that the Civil Code of Ukraine contains neither the doctrine of consideration nor the concept of cause. On the other hand, in the civil law of Ukraine, the category of counter is manifested in the concepts: "counter performance", "counter obligations", "counter claims". It is emphasized that Article 538 of the Civil Code of Ukraine "Reciprocal performance of an obligation" also cannot be considered an analogue of the doctrine of counter-provision, since the right to refuse to perform a counter-obligation established in this article is applied precisely at the stage of performance of the contract to obligations that are interdependent Conclusions. The author made a conclusion about the possibility and usefulness of the reception of the counterproviding doctrine and its application in national judicial practice.