Civil law (including family law and obligations)
Scope
The civil-law domain tests the General Part of Act No. 89/2012 Sb. (občanský zákoník), family law and obligations. Expect questions on legal personality, formation and defects of legal acts, representation, limitation, contract and tort liability, and matrimonial property.
General part and legal acts
- Legal personality begins at birth; the unborn child (nasciturus) is protected if born alive. Full capacity to exercise rights is reached at 18 or by marriage from 16 with court permission.
- A legal act requires intention, expression and, where prescribed, form. Defects include error (omyl), fraud (lest), coercion (bezprávná výhrůžka) and incapacity. Distinguish relative invalidity (neplatnost, invoked by the protected person) from absolute invalidity and from an apparent act (zdánlivé jednání).
- Representation may be statutory, contractual (mandate) or commercial (prokura). Limitation (promlčení) suspends the remedy but not the right; preclusion (prekluze) extinguishes it. The general limitation period is three years, with special periods.
Obligations and family
- Contracts arise by offer and acceptance; pre-contractual liability (§ 1728) protects legitimate expectations. Consumer contracts attract mandatory protection.
- Tort: general liability under § 2910 for breach of a statutory duty, § 2911 for intentional conduct contrary to good morals, plus strict liability. Compensation covers material and non-material harm (pain, diminished social function).
- Unjust enrichment is restored under § 2991. Security devices include guarantee, pledge and bank guarantee.
- Family law: marriage, community property (SJM) with possible prenuptial variation, divorce (dissolution and settlement), parental responsibility, custody and maintenance. The child’s best interests are the paramount principle.
Worked example
A sells B a painting described as an original; A knows it is a copy but says nothing. B later discovers the truth. Silence is fraud only where there is a duty to inform; here A’s deliberate concealment induces an essential error. B may invoke relative invalidity within the limitation period and claim restitution, or affirm the contract and claim damages. The key is to identify the defect, the remedy and the time limit, not merely to say the contract is “void”.
Traps
Confusing absolute and relative invalidity; treating limitation as extinction; overlooking mandatory consumer rules; assuming SJM always applies; and forgetting that divorce has two separate stages.