Contractual Penalty under the Commercial Code (with focus on the discretionary power of a judge to reduce a contractual penalty) Contractual penalty is a concept frequently used by the parties to consolidate the position of the creditor as well as to motivate the debtor to fulfill the obligation as agreed. Not different from the other institutes of private law, the practical application of contractual penalty arises many questions with no uniform answers. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze selected contentious issues concerning the contractual penalty, especially discretionary power of a judge to reduce its unreasonable amount, to confront controversial theoretical opinions as well as non-conforming conclusions drawn from the juristic theory and established practice of the courts and add own opinion on the discussed matters. The paper does not include the exhaustive construction of contractual penalty, and therefore the general aspects are outlined only to the necessary extent. Greater attention is paid to the creation and existence of the right and claim to the contractual penalty. The study shifts the focus on the discretionary power of a judge to mitigate its inappropriate amount comprising different opinions on the related issues. The concept of contractual penalty has been used in private...

Instrument juridique au bénéfice des parties, aussi bien pour les contribuables que pour l’administration fiscale, le contentieux fiscal constitue, en principe, un observatoire propice pour mesurer la répercussion, la portée et l’efficacité de la gestion publique de l’impôt. Il sert à éprouver, dans sa généralité, la politique fiscale. C’est en ces termes que sa conceptualisation en tant que mécanisme de régulation et de modélisation s’observe. Un tel concept est essentiellement basé sur le prisme de l’indépendance du juge, de la séparation des pouvoirs, de l’effectivité du contrôle juridictionnel et par déduction de la protection des droits et garanties des parties. Pourtant, la réalité demeure très éloignée de ces aspirations. En effet, le contentieux fiscal se caractérise par trois traits significatifs, à savoir : le comportement de suprématie de l’administration fiscale, le dessaisissement du juge et par la même occasion la dépossession de la Justice au bénéfice d’un système de contractualisation de l’impôt, et enfin le déclin du droit des contribuables. Aux nombreuses prérogatives de puissance publique, que la loi attribue à l’administration fiscale, s’ajoutent les pouvoirs discrétionnaires, conférant à cette dernière un statut quasi juridictionnel. Ainsi, sur fond d’un légicentrisme exacerbé et sur une mauvaise appréhension de la notion d’intérêt général et de celle du juge de l’impôt, s’institue un véritable système atrophié, marqué par le renoncement du juge à son pouvoir et par l’affermissement du pouvoir de l’administration. Nous assistons à un débordement du pouvoir judiciaire par d’autres instances régulatrices. Le contentieux échappe au juge en faveur de l’administration, et ce dans une indifférence anormale qui s’apparente davantage à une connivence latente. Il est plus que jamais indispensable de remettre en question ces évidences, qu’elles soient liées au droit substantiel ou au droit processuel, et d’en finir avec cette forme de doxa juridique qui suppose que les règles sont immuables. De surcroit, la fiscalité est soumise au mouvement de la conjoncture, le système contentieux se doit, lui aussi, d’être évolutif, afin d’apporter des solutions juridiquement cohérentes, économiquement logiques et équitables. L’évolution et la transformation du contentieux doivent ainsi s’inscrire dans une judiciarisation de toutes les phases de la procédure. Le but est de permettre un contrôle effectif, neutre et objectif, d’éviter les décisions arbitraires ou même inégalitaires et enfin d’équilibrer les droits du contribuable et les prérogatives de l’administration. / As a legal instrument for each litigant, both for the taxpayer and for the tax administration, tax litigation is, in theory, an enabling observatory to measure the impact, the extent and the effectiveness of public policy concerning taxation. From a general point of view, it used to test in generally tax policy. Those are the terms under which its conceptualization as a control and modeling mechanism may be undertaken. Such efficient concept is essentially based upon the prism of judicial independence, separation of powers, effectiveness of judicial review, and by inference, protection of the rights and guarantees of the parties. However, the reality is very far removed from these aspirations. Indeed, tax litigation is characterized by three significant features, namely the supremacy of tax administration, the judge’s renunciation and divestment, in the same time the dispossession of Justice in favor of recourse to the contract-based solutions and the increased use of Alternative Dispute Resolution, and finally the decline of taxpayers right. To the prerogative of the public authority, expressly conferred by law upon the tax authority, are added the discretionary powers, which confers a quasi-judicial status. This way, amid a heightened legicentrisme and a misunderstanding of the concept of general interest and the role of tax judge, it results in the establishment of a real atrophied system, characterized by the judge’s renouncing his role and by the expansion of authorities’ administration. It is disappointing to note an overflow of the judiciary by other regulatory agencies. The litigation is outside judge’s control in favor of the administration, with complete indifference and appears to be more like a latent connivance. It is highly necessary to challenge things that are taken for granted, both the substantive and the procedural norms, and to deal with this form of legal orthodoxy which assumes that the rules are immutable. Furthermore, tax changes with the economic scene in constant flux, the litigation system must be also scalable, to provide legally consistent solutions, economically logical and equitable nonetheless. The evolution and the transformation of litigation should be a part of the legalization of all phases of the procedure. The aim is to enable effective control, neutral and objective, to avoid arbitrary decisions, even unequal, and finally to balance taxpayer rights and prerogatives of the administration.

La Cour européenne des droits de l'homme a, en 1968, dès son cinquième arrêt au principal, établi que des droits civils et politiques pouvaient générer des obligations d'action à la charge des États. Cette affirmation venait remettre en cause la définition traditionnelle de ces droits. En effet, ils étaient classiquement considérés comme mettant à la charge des États uniquement des obligations négatives. En revanche, les droits économiques sociaux et culturels étaient présentés comme imposant seulement des obligations positives. Le juge européen a, depuis lors, mis au jour un nombre croissant d'obligations positives prétoriennes. Plusieurs techniques ont été développées pour ce faire. Cette étude vise à analyser ce que nous avons dénommé la technique des obligations positives, c'est-à-dire l'usage par la Cour des termes « obligations positives » ou « mesures positives ». Cette technique permet non seulement au juge européen de dégager des obligations d'action à la charge des États, mais également de reconnaître sa compétence pour contrôler l'exécution de ses propres arrêts, de conférer un effet horizontal à la Convention ou encore d'étendre la notion de juridiction au sens de l'article 1 CEDH. Elle est également un moyen de moduler son contrôle en permettant tantôt d'accorder une large marge nationale d'appréciation, tantôt de la réduire à néant. Cette diversification croissante de l'usage de la technique dans la jurisprudence européenne est toutefois source d'incohérences.La thèse défendue vise à démontrer que la technique des obligations positives est un outil d'adaptation de la norme juridique conventionnelle à l'évolution des États démocratiques et libéraux européens. / As early as 1968, the fifth merits judgment of the European Court of Human Rights established that civil and political rights could generate action obligations on the European States. This judgment was challenging the usual definition of those rights, which were traditionally considered as charging the public authorities with only negative obligations. In contrast, economic, social and cultural rights were positioned as imposing positive obligations on the public authorities. The European Court of Human Rights has since created an increasing number of positive obligations and several techniques were developed for this purpose. This study aims to explore the “positive obligations technique”, that is to say, the Court's use of the terms “positive obligations” or “positive measures”. This technique not only allows the Court judge to impose action obligations on the European States, also recognizes the Court judge's competence to monitor the implementation by the public authorities of its own decisions, to give a horizontal effect to the Convention and to extend the concept of "jurisdiction" within the meaning of Article 1 ECHR. This technique also permits to modulate the Court's control over the European States, granting a wide margin of appreciation or reducing it to nothing. The increasing diversification of the use of this technique in European case law is however a source of discrepancy.. This thesis aims to demonstrate that the technique of positive obligations is a tool for adaptation of the conventional norma to the changes of the democratic and liberal European States.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo o estudo da aplicação do princípio da congruência no Processo Individual do Trabalho. Tal princípio caracteriza-se pelo caráter restritivo da atuação judicial, vinculando a prolação de sentença aos limites da lide. A problemática centra-se no entendimento do conceito de lide, ora entendido simplesmente como pedido, ora como a matéria fática e jurídica levada aos autos, permitindo-se ao magistrado conhecer de pedidos não formulados expressamente, desde que os fatos a eles pertinentes tenham sido discutidos nos autos. A partir da Teoria Instrumentalista do Processo, que admite este modo de resolução de conflitos como um meio para a efetividade do Direito Material, buscou-se identificar a possibilidade de flexibilização do princípio da congruência no Processo Individual do Trabalho, tendo em vista que o estudo deste princípio revelou que a doutrina e a jurisprudência civil e trabalhista já permitem sua relativização ou mitigação em determinados casos, em especial quando se trata da aplicação de norma de ordem pública, uma das características do Direito Material do Trabalho. Ademais, considerando as questões linguísticas implicadas na formulação da pretensão da parte e da sentença, foi feita pesquisa jurisprudencial no sítio eletrônico do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, de modo a identificar as relações hermenêuticas estabelecidas entre o pedido e a decisão final neste tribunal. Para tanto, foram selecionadas 149 decisões em que se discute a existência ou não de julgamento além dos limites da lide, destacando-se os casos em que o tribunal considerou desnecessária a formulação de pedido expresso para a concessão de direito trabalhista / The purpose of this dissertation is to study the use of the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita in individual labor process. This principle is defined by the restrictive aspect of the acts of the judge, binding the sentence to the matters under dispute. The core discussion lies on the identification of such matters, which can be seen as simply the pleadings expressed by the parties or as all the matters in connection with the facts merely mentioned by them. The latter position would allow the judicial authority to pronounce a sentence addressing additional matters that were not expressly pleaded by the parties. Based on the idea that the due process of law is an instrument to achieve effectiveness of legal commands, on the already accepted exception of this principle when it comes to public order rules, and also on the assumption that labor law is of public order, this dissertation analyzed the possibility of disregarding the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita in individual labor process in order to enhance the legal award. In addition to the theoretical analysis, a wide research on the website of the superior labor court (Tribunal Superior do Trabalho) was carried out in order to verify the hermeneutical relations between the pleadings and the dispositions of the judicial decision. Bearing such an objective in mind, 149 decisions on the alleged violation of the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita were selected and analyzed, focusing on those awards in which the court considered irrelevant the existence of an express pleading in order to grant or deny a specific labor right.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo o estudo da aplicação do princípio da congruência no Processo Individual do Trabalho. Tal princípio caracteriza-se pelo caráter restritivo da atuação judicial, vinculando a prolação de sentença aos limites da lide. A problemática centra-se no entendimento do conceito de lide, ora entendido simplesmente como pedido, ora como a matéria fática e jurídica levada aos autos, permitindo-se ao magistrado conhecer de pedidos não formulados expressamente, desde que os fatos a eles pertinentes tenham sido discutidos nos autos. A partir da Teoria Instrumentalista do Processo, que admite este modo de resolução de conflitos como um meio para a efetividade do Direito Material, buscou-se identificar a possibilidade de flexibilização do princípio da congruência no Processo Individual do Trabalho, tendo em vista que o estudo deste princípio revelou que a doutrina e a jurisprudência civil e trabalhista já permitem sua relativização ou mitigação em determinados casos, em especial quando se trata da aplicação de norma de ordem pública, uma das características do Direito Material do Trabalho. Ademais, considerando as questões linguísticas implicadas na formulação da pretensão da parte e da sentença, foi feita pesquisa jurisprudencial no sítio eletrônico do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, de modo a identificar as relações hermenêuticas estabelecidas entre o pedido e a decisão final neste tribunal. Para tanto, foram selecionadas 149 decisões em que se discute a existência ou não de julgamento além dos limites da lide, destacando-se os casos em que o tribunal considerou desnecessária a formulação de pedido expresso para a concessão de direito trabalhista / The purpose of this dissertation is to study the use of the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita in individual labor process. This principle is defined by the restrictive aspect of the acts of the judge, binding the sentence to the matters under dispute. The core discussion lies on the identification of such matters, which can be seen as simply the pleadings expressed by the parties or as all the matters in connection with the facts merely mentioned by them. The latter position would allow the judicial authority to pronounce a sentence addressing additional matters that were not expressly pleaded by the parties. Based on the idea that the due process of law is an instrument to achieve effectiveness of legal commands, on the already accepted exception of this principle when it comes to public order rules, and also on the assumption that labor law is of public order, this dissertation analyzed the possibility of disregarding the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita in individual labor process in order to enhance the legal award. In addition to the theoretical analysis, a wide research on the website of the superior labor court (Tribunal Superior do Trabalho) was carried out in order to verify the hermeneutical relations between the pleadings and the dispositions of the judicial decision. Bearing such an objective in mind, 149 decisions on the alleged violation of the Principle of Ne Ultra et Extra Petita were selected and analyzed, focusing on those awards in which the court considered irrelevant the existence of an express pleading in order to grant or deny a specific labor right.

Objet connu de la recherche juridique, sujet à la mode, la motivation n'a pourtant pas livré tous ses mystères, lien éthéré entre le processus décisionnel, avec lequel on voudrait parfois la confondre, et l'instrumentum du jugement, auquel elle ne peut se réduire. Propulsée sur le devant de la scène par les (r)évolutions de la place du juge dans notre ordre social et processuel, elle est marquée d'une ambigüité essentielle. Envisagée comme un devoir, la motivation apparaît comme un processus de légitimation interne et externe de la décision du juge judiciaire, dont l'aboutissement repose sur une triple vertu : vertu introspective d'abord, par laquelle le magistrat est amené, dans l'intimité de sa conscience de juge, à une réflexion renouvelée sur sa décision ; vertu processuelle, ensuite, par laquelle on s'assure du respect par le juge des droits processuels et substantiels ; vertu pédagogique enfin, marquant l'ambition d'une justice comprise et acceptée. Envisagée comme un pouvoir, la motivation est à la fois le révélateur et l'instrument de la participation du juge judiciaire à un véritable dialogue normatif et éthique, au-delà de son office strictement juridictionnel. C'est par-delà cette ambiguïté essentielle de la motivation, à la fois devoir et pouvoir, que se dévoile, entre confiance et espérances, le renouveau de la fonction du juge à l'aube du XXIème siècle / The legal basis for decisions, a well-known and fashionable subject of legal research, has yet to yield up all its secrets: it constitutes the insubstantial link between the decision-making process, with which it is sometimes confused, and the instrumentum of the judgment which cannot be regarded as its sole component. (R)evolutions in thinking concerning the position of the judge in both social and procedural contexts have propelled the question to the forefront, and its very essence is ambiguous. Initially regarded as a duty, the requirement to give a legal basis for a decision comes across as a process of internal and external legitimisation of the judge’s findings, and its finality is based upon a threefold virtue. Firstly the virtue of introspection whereby the judge is led, in the privacy of his conscience, to undertake a renewed reflection on his or her decision. Secondly the virtue of good procedure whereby the respect by the judge of procedural and substantive rights is assured. Finally, there is the pedagogical virtue of a system of justice which sets out to be understood and accepted. Initially regarded as a power, the legal basis for decisions both reveals and enables the participation of the judge in a truly normative and ethical dialogue which goes beyond the strictly jurisdictional context of his office. Thus it is through this ambiguity between duty and power which constitutes the essence of the legal basis for decisions that is heralded, at the dawn of the 21st century, in a climate of confidence and hope, the renewal of the judicial function.