Obliegenheiten und Nebenpflichten

Diverse standards of conduct are imposed by the German term Obliegenheiten. According to the current prevailing opinion, these are not »real« legal duties, but rather those which have less legal compulsion, which are prerequisites for maintaining the law in one's own interest or liability for fault against one's own interests. As a result, the provisions of the general law of obligations do not apply. The dogmatic classification of Obliegenheiten in the private law system of duties is however unclear. They developed into a special feature in German law at a time when the difference in the relationship between primary duties and collateral duties had not yet been established conclusively. Susanne Hähnchen studies the functions of the individual elements of the legal norm and of the various interests concerned and in doing so reaches a differentiating conclusion.