THE CONCEPT AND LEGAL NATURE OF THE AGREEMENT FOR MANAGEMENT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S AFFAIRS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the definition of the concept and legal nature of the contract for the management of other people’s affairs. In particular, the author establishes that it should be perceived as: a) a legal fact; b) a key element of the mechanism of contractual regulation of legal relations related to the management of other people’s affairs; c) a legal relationship; d) an expression of the principle of freedom of contract in the absence of legislative consolidation of the contractual structure under study in the national legal system. It is proved that the contract for management of other people’s affairs is endowed with the feature of unnamedness, which means that this contractual structure can be used to regulate relations on delegated management in practice, despite its lack of enshrining in the provisions of current legislation. The author emphasizes the bilateral nature of the contract, which is substantiated by the opposite orientation of the rights and obligations of its parties, the opposite nature of the wills of the latter, and the non-identical goals for which the parties enter into contractual legal relations. The author proves that a contract for management of other people’s affairs is a compensatory one, given that the manager receives a property equivalent (fee for services) as a result of fulfilling his/ her obligations to the manager. The author establishes that the contract under study may be: a) both consensual and real (depending on the specifics of the management object in respect of which the delegation of powers to the manager is made under the contract, as well as other circumstances which are legally relevant for establishing a contractual legal relationship); b) both fixed-term and indefinite, taking into account the needs of the management creator and the manager’s capabilities. The author emphasizes the fiduciary nature of the contract for management of other people’s affairs, which makes it possible for the management founder to delegate discretionary powers to the manager to manage other people’s affairs, including the latter’s performance of legal and factual actions which are the subject matter of the contract in the interests of the management founder, at his/her own discretion, depending on the specific circumstances.