Civil law and the law of obligations
Civil law and the law of obligations
The paper tests the Luxembourg Civil Code as it still stands, largely the 1804 French text as amended: how contracts are formed, performed and extinguished, and when damage triggers liability. Expect questions that ask you to classify a source of obligation before applying rules.
Sources and formation
- Obligations arise from contract, quasi-contract, delict and quasi-delict.
- Article 1108 conditions: consent, capacity, a certain object and a lawful cause.
- Consent is vitiated by substantial error, dol or violence; lesion is exceptional.
- Cause is a real requirement in Luxembourg law, not the English consideration.
Effects and liability
- Contracts must be performed in good faith; force majeure, agreed resolutory conditions and judicial resolution end them.
- Articles 1382–1383 require fault, damage and causation. Article 1384 adds liability for things, parents and employers; 1385 animals; 1386 ruin of buildings.
- General prescription is 30 years, with shorter periods for particular claims.
Worked example
A buyer discovers a hidden structural defect two years after purchase. The claim is not the 30-year contractual action but the garantie des vices cachés (arts. 1641 ff.): the defect must be hidden, pre-existing and serious enough to make the property unfit for its use. The buyer may claim rescission (action rédhibitoire) or a price reduction (action estimatoire), plus damages if the seller knew of the defect.
Traps
Do not import the 2016 French reform or common-law consideration. Do not treat every breach as a vice caché, and remember that exemption clauses cannot cover dol or faute lourde.