Precontractual Liability under the Portuguese, German and French Legal Systems

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: 15/20, , language: English, abstract: On a daily basis, contracts are concluded between natural or legal persons. Therefore, many legal subjects have to enter into the precontractual phase of negotiations that eventually lead to a conclusion or a failure of the treaty. As first outlined by Jhering in 18611, the precontractual phase can establish a legal relationship in which precontractual obligations have to be respected. In the following, the precontractual liability under the German, French and Portuguese law will be compared. After an analysis of the historical origin of the precontractual liability in general and the presentation of the historical developments in Germany, France and Portugal, the legal problem, that needs a regulation in the legal orders, will be defined. Furthermore, in the com-parison of the regulatory framework, the similarities and differences of the current legislations in the three states will be examined based on various criteria such as the legal basis, the concrete precontractual duties and the relevance of the good faith. Apart from comparing compensable damages, the legal institutes in those states will be classified. Before summing up the compar-ison of the roots and the legal institute by also including a grid of the main comparative aspects, important cases will be presented to understand the development of the precontractual liability in Germany, France and Portugal.