COMPETENT LAW AND ORDER FOR CULPA IN CONTRAHENDO

Abstract

The question arising in the legal literature about the legal nature of culpa in contrahendo has no unambiguous interpre-tation. Such different approaches to its definition as contractual, quasi-contractual or tort liability are due to the different degree of development of the concept in the legal systems of European states. The Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus prescribes certain provisions on pre–contractual liability in the context of the law of obligations, and the legal consequences associated with it – causing harm - qualifies as a tort. Since the "segment" of the civil law contract we are interested in is at the junction of contractual and non-contractual law, then only by examining the content of the tort and obligation statutes will it be possible to determine the position of the institution of pre-contractual liability (culpa in contrahendo) in terms of legal "proximity" to a particular type of obligations, and hence the range of possibilities of participants in these relations, which is the purpose of this article. The problems of the position of the institute of pre-contractual liability can be resolved through a comparative analysis of the criteria of the statutes and culpa in contrahendo, which represents the scientific novelty of the study. The author formulated the features of culpa in contrahendo, defining it as an independent legal institution, and justified the need for legislative consolidation of the provision on pre-contractual liability in the current Civil Code.