Konstantinović's concept of Limitation of Claims: Have the ideas about the time's influence on law withstood the influence of time?

Abstract

Mihailo Konstantinović was the author of the 1953 Act on Limitation of Claims. The article explores how he improved and surpassed the rules on limitation set forth in the Austrian Civil Code which had previously been directly or indirectly applicable in a large part of the former Yugoslavia. His cornerstone ideas were later also copied with minor changes (partly not well thought through) into the Law on Obligations, ensuring there was no need for a comprehensive reform for decades. Admittedly, modern guidelines on limitation propose somewhat different concepts, focusing increasingly on the balance between the creditor and the debtor and on the simplification of the system. However, these guidelines are based on the modern discourse on human rights in private law and on the negative experience of some European jurisdictions with outdated and untransparent rules on limitation which - as opposed to the former Yugoslavia - remained unchanged for a century or more.

Keywords

• extinctive prescription
• limitation of acts
• mihailo konstantinović
• act on limitation of claims
• right to fair trial
• comparative law