Law of Obligations

the norms of civil law that regulate relationships in transferring property from one participant in economic circulation to another, for example, through sales, loans, or independent-work contracts. In the USSR the law of obligations regulates the planned distribution of commodities for technical industrial use among socialist organizations, capital construction, the introduction of technological advances, the sale of consumer goods, the performance of work or public services, and relationships arising from citizens disposition of property belonging to them by right of personal ownership. The law of obligations also regulates relationships arising from wrongful acts, for example, a person who violates another’s right must compensate the victim for the damage caused.

The law of obligations as a body of legal norms is part of the Basic Principles of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics and is incorporated in the civil codes of the republics. The Basic Principles contain norms defining the creation of obligations, the performance of obligations, the securing of the performance of obligations, liability for breach of obligations, and the termination of obligations. The civil codes also regulate individual types of obligations, such as delivery contracts, state purchases of agricultural products from kolkhozes and sovkhozes, the lease of property, shipment, insurance, payment and credit relationships, agency, commission contracts, and deposit.

The norms of the law of obligations are also contained in all-Union and republic normative acts, for example, the Statute on Deliveries of Commodities for Technical Industrial Use, the Statute on Deliveries of Consumer Goods, and various transportation codes (railroad, maritime, river, and air), which regulate in detail contracts for the shipment of freight and conveyance of passengers.