Abuse of Rights: Theory and Legal Issues

The present thesis is dedicated to the concept of abuse of rights. The study includes seventy-eight pages. The thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. One hundred and fourteen Russian and French normative acts and acts of law enforcement, ninety-four sources of Russian and foreign literature were used. In the introduction, the background is revealed, the degree of research of the problem is indicated, the object of research remains determined, the methods used, goals and tasks are set and a brief description of the structure of the paper is provided. The first chapter is aimed to the doctrine of abuse of rights in Roman law. The author attempts to distinguish the provisions on good faith from the provisions on abuse by scrutinizing the digests of Justinian. The second chapter illustrates the current state of the concept of abuse of rights in Russia and in France: a review of legislation, jurisprudence and doctrine is done. In the third chapter, the author attempts to critically comprehend the concept of abuse of rights and to propose his own solution to the problems arising from it. Based on this research the following conclusions are made. Firstly, Roman law did not know the concept of abuse of rights, but there was an idea of abuse by acting in someone else's interest. Secondly, the inconsistency of the actual concept of abuse of rights is revealed. Thirdly, making identification of abuse of rights and good faith has its advantages but creates uncertainty arising from the essence of good faith. The author offers a rationale for abuse of authority. The derived criteria for abuse of authority corroborate its self-sufficiency and make it possible to determine the concept of good faith in particular cases.