ИЗМЕНЕ ОДРЕДБИ О ЗАСТАРЕВАЊУ У НЕМАЧКОМ ГРАЂАНСКОМ ЗАКОНИКУ
CHANGES REGARDING LIMITATIONS IN THE GERMAN CIVIL CODE

Summary/Abstract: With the Law on the Modernisation of the Law of Obligations, which came into force on January 1, 2002, the provisions on limitations contained in the general part of the German Civil Code underwent thorough changes. The former regulations were a compromise of rules that were valid in different areas (Partikularrechte), prior to the unification of Germany until January 1, 1900. The new changes rely less on European law, (which contains only provisions on the limitation of claims for defects in goods sold to consumers), than on comprehensive discussions, which started early in the eighties, with suggestions for conducting a thorough reform of the German Civil Code. With regard to the duration of limitation, the new rules substantially simplify the previous provisions. Whereas in the former, attention was mainly focused on the interruption of the limitation period, and which was regulated in a comprehensive form, now, in contrast, the phenomenon of the suspension of the limitation is the predominant idea. The introduction of the subjective element, that is to say, the knowledge of the claim and of the defendant, changed the entire system. This gave rise to several problems, not least procedural ones that were not reviewed in cases, till now. Whereas the German system considers knowledge as an objection (exceptio), the Lando Commission, on the contrary, takes the lack of knowledge as grounds for suspension of the limitation period.

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