Natural (Imperfect) Obligations in Polish Civil Law

One of the fundamental principles of the law of obligations is that claims arising from obligations may be pursued in court. An exception in this regard, however, are natural obligations (otherwise: imperfect, unenforceable), i.e., legal obligations in respect of which the authorised entity cannot demand their performance through state coercion. Nevertheless, they remain obligations of a legal nature; therefore, if the debtor performs a service in their execution, they cannot subsequently demand its return by invoking their unenforceability. The project concerns precisely this particular category of obligations. The concept of obligatio naturalis originates from Roman law, which also explains its widespread occurrence in many legal systems. In the course of its development, however, it has acquired a different meaning and is understood inconsistently. The Roman reasons for unenforceability have become obsolete, yet in modern law, the discussed category of obligations has been revisited due to various values and interests. Typical examples of such obligations are those in which the claim has become time-barred and obligations arising from a game or wager (with certain exceptions). Other cases, however, are no longer uniformly accepted. This applies, among others, to such issues significant for practice as: forward transactions on the stock exchange similar to a game or wager, the effects of waiving a claim in civil proceedings for the subsequent renewed pursuit of a given claim by the plaintiff, or a mandate in a donation or a will. Natural obligations constitute a legal construct essential for the entire general part of the law of obligations, and especially for defining and properly understanding the basic concept of "obligation". The importance of the problem itself can be evidenced by the simultaneous occurrence of numerous monographs on this topic, inter alia, in German, Austrian, English, and French literature. Meanwhile, the topic of natural obligations in Polish legal scholarship has not yet received any broader treatment, and individual statements are limited only to its general characteristics. The planned research is intended to be the first attempt at a full and exhaustive characterisation of this institution in Polish law. The primary objective of the project is to answer the question of the significance of qualifying a given obligation as a natural obligation under Polish law. Firstly, this requires an assessment of the usefulness of the construct itself, i.e., determining whether it makes sense at all to distinguish such a specific category of obligations in the Polish legal system, and whether the individual cases qualified as natural obligations have enough common features to be spoken of as a uniform category. Secondly, there is doubt as to whether special legal institutions provided for enforceable obligations will apply to natural obligations. This concerns, in particular, the admissibility of: set-off; claims for damages for non-performance or improper performance of an imperfect obligation, or claims for interest payments, or the possibility of establishing a pledge to secure an unenforceable claim. Many detailed issues are also connected with this problem: on the one hand, whether it is also permissible to contractually create a natural obligation, on the other hand, whether the legislator has full discretion in giving specific obligations an unenforceable character – in such a case, the possibility of compulsory enforcement of the debt is, after all, limited. This problem requires an overall perspective, especially from the perspective of the broadly understood right to a court and constitutional guarantees of contract enforceability. Questions also arise related to attempts to enforce natural obligations before a court, inter alia, whether the court takes unenforceability into account ex officio or only upon objection. The aim of the project is to dispel all these doubts. The project is intended to be an important contribution to the development of Polish civil law scholarship. A precise characterisation of the category of natural obligations will allow for a better understanding of such basic concepts in civil law as "obligation" and "enforceability". Furthermore, determining the legal effectiveness of natural obligations and clearly characterising their individual cases will positively impact legal certainty, allow for a better understanding of the issue of enforceability, and thus have a positive effect for all citizens. The research results may also impact judicial practice.