Lückenschließung zwischen Gesetz und Vertrag

Long-term and organizational contracts are necessarily incomplete. German private law primarily fills gaps through default rules and supplementary interpretation. This article argues that both operate today as normatively constrained gap-fillers rather than as tools to reconstruct a subjective »hypothetical will.« This functional convergence is important: default rules reflect legislative choices and should prevail prima facie. From an intertemporal perspective, new default law applies ex nunc to ongoing relationships, whereas interpretation focuses on the moment of formation. The Article therefore proposes a dynamic reference point.