The Effects of Fundamental Human Rights on Private Law Relationships and Limits to Such Effects

This article deals with the influence of fundamental human rights on private law relationships on the level of their application; it classifies these effects and its forms and states conditions of the possible use of fundamental rights instead of or alongside private-law rules as well as the limitations for this use. It thus distinguishes between the direct application instead of private-law regulation and the indirect effects of human rights arising out of the interpretation of private-law regulations in the spirit of human rights. As private law is a relatively independent and self-contained system of legal regulations, it looks on the functioning of human rights as an extraordinary case representing a huge conflict between the application of possibly applicable private-law regulations and fundamental human rights, (e.g. the principle of equality) and, further, a conflict with “bonos mores” or “good faith”. Hence, from the purpose of the entire legal system the importance of the application of basic rights has to ensue so that this abyss can be filled and any discrepancy eliminated.