The essay is about the clause of foreseeability in connection with damages for breach of a contract. This seems to be a constant problem throughout the history of law how and when it is reasonably to limit the amount of damages in case of breach.

The general principle of full compensation originates in the main purpose of private law, restoring the violated financial situation. At the same time in business relations it often happens that damages occurred as consequences of breach highly exceed the contractual interest of the party and generate indirect damages independent from the violator’s influence. This is considered to be the starting point of the dilemma about restricting the damages availably for compensation.

Full compensation and its relation to breach of a contract occurred in the Hungarian jurisprudence many times. Miklós Világhy suggested the reconsideration of full compensation in contract law in 1971. Attila Harmathy also suggested the implementation of foreseeability clause in the rules of contract law as the ‘best possible way to treat business relations between the parties’.

Due to the historic and social differences various forms of foreseeability are known in the legal systems.

The study examines the development of foreseeability, its first codification in the French Napoleonic Code Civil, its application in the law of the USA and some significant sentences of English courts. The first application of foreseeability was in the infamous Hadley v. Baxendale case, in which an English court worked out the meaning of contemplation rules. In the case of Victoria Laundry Ld. v. Newman Industries Ld. (1949) the court defined the meaning of foreseeability. According to the sentence of the case damages are limited to those that were foreseeable for the party at the time of entering a contract. The study also analyzes the German model of restricting damages of breach. The German theory ensures the possibility of exoneration for the violator if the other party failed to give proper information about the unusual danger of breach in the particular case. If the entitled party acted intentionally, the German law accepts exoneration. The essay demonstrates the adequate causality conception of the German law. This theory states that an act can only be the probable cause if – due to the normal and reasonable procession – it is able to cause such consequence. In our opinion foreseeability gives a stricter and much better solution of restricting damages with a more objective measurement for the obliged party on how to calculate his behavior in a certain contractual relation. The amount of risk can be predicted if the rules of damages for breach are based on foreseeability rather than adequate causality.

The new Hungarian Civil Code plans to establish objective liability in contract law. The only exoneration can be the successful reference to unavoidable external cause. Beside this stricter liability the new Civil Code also introduce the possibility of limitation in damages, the application of foreseeability clause. This seems to be a significant preference for the obliged party. As in the Hungarian legal history foreseeability clause was never used, it is an essential question how judicature will interpret the rule in practice. In our opinion for an adequate application of the new clause it is necessary to take a closer look at the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and the interpretation in the American and English case law. This study tries to give some help for it.

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In the legal terminology of private law several times the same definition is used for addressing the same legal institution (e.g. default penalty, in-building). In most of the cases there is no problem to separate these institutions and we can also give an explanation why legislator used the same terminology.

The definition of accessory is used for a special group of article groups in the Hungarian Civil Code and also used in the Act I. of 1988. From the angle of judicature it is problematic as even if the definition of road accessory is build upon the general terminology of accessory in the Civil Code, the two legal institutions are not the same.

In the essay we would like to emphasize that the safety of traffic does not give a decent reason why we have to restrict the proprietary rights with using the institution of road accessory. This restriction is in a close connection with not only the distance from the public road but the effect of the property to the safety of traffic. The valid regulations may cause illogical contradictions and judicature problem.

Nach mehr als zweijähriger Gesetzeswerdung wurde im Herbst 2005 das neue Unternehmensgesetzbuch (UGB) im Parlament beschlossen und damit das bisherige Handelsgesetzbuch reformiert.

Es gibt nur mehr zwei im Firmenbuch eingetragene Personengesellschaftsformen, und zwar die Offene Gesellschaft (OG; früher OHG) und die Kommanditgesellschaft (KG). Eine OEG oder KEG kann nur mehr bis zum 31.12.2006 gegründet werden. Eine am 1.1.2007 bestehende OEG oder KEG wird automatisch zur OG, KG und muss bis zum 31.12.2009 ihren Rechtsformzusatz im Firmenwortlaut entsprechend abändern. Für eine bestehende OHG sieht das Gesetz keine Anpassung des Firmenwortlautes vor.

Die Einführung des neuen Unternehmergesetzbuches (UGB) mit Wirkung zum 1.1.2007 bedeutet das „Aus“ für OEG´s und KEG´s. Dies bedeutet, dass bestehende OEG´s und KEG´s bis zum Jänner 2010 den Rechtsformzusatz „OG oder KG“ entsprechend anpassen müssen. Dies geschieht gebührenfrei. Der Zusatz „OHG“ darf weiterhin geführt werden.

Neu ist, dass die im Unternehmensgesetzbuch geregelten eingetragenen Personengesellschaften zu jedem Zweck gegründet werden können, egal ob gewerblich, freiberuflich, land- und forstwirtschaftlich oder nicht unternehmerisch.

Contractual relations mean balanced cooperation between the parties. Right and obligations on both sides are equal. This seems to be a classic essential of contracts. As of many among the terms and condition in contract law, special situations clam for a different perspective. This essay is about a unique problem in contract law that origins from the ancient dilemma about the role of the state in private law relations.

State as a sovereign has original power and hierarchic connection to citizens. In the field of constitutional law, public administration law, criminal law it is necessary to transfer certain right to the state and allow it determining one-sided obligations that cannot be changed in a particular relation. The theory of state immunity failed in the 20th century in private law. Since jurisprudence makes a difference between the role of the state as a merchant and a sovereign, we cannot maintain the old immunity rights of the state anymore.

In the essay we examine three specific questions in connection with state participation in contracts. The first part of our study analyzes the strange legal arguments in a famous Hungarian case, called the Subway case. In this case the reasoning of the Supreme Court denied the balanced elements in a private contract and accepted a redefined theory of state immunity in private relations. Although there is a strong political content in the story and right after the criticized decision the Hungarian Civil Code was modified to clear the facts, we want to prove that even today state participation can cause interferences in the coherent theory of contracts.

A specific contract type is examined in the second chapter of the essay, the concession agreement. This contract is far from the balanced theory of party positions due to its unique nature and content. We emphasize many different aspects in mixing private and public law nature of provisions and rules. Concession agreement is an excellent example to demonstrate extra-rights on the side of the state.

Finally we spare some words on authority contracts in which state authorities can manage debates in public administration procedures with using the private law nature of contracts.

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