Application of the Rules of the Code of Obligations for Concession Contract Relations: Concession Contract on the Boundary between the Public and Private Interests

Abstract

The special legal nature of the concession contract (as one of the legal transactions) which represents a legal framework where the public and private interests meet (two parties cooperate for mutual benefit) is characterised by intertwining of general rules of obligation law and special legal institutes that originate from the sphere of public law. The legal nature of the contractual relationships that arise between administrative and private entities requires special regulation of individual institutes that should reflect the public interest as an important guiding principle for concluding these contracts, and a special legal position of a public law entity as a holder of this public interest. Despite adoption of the new Public-Private Partnership Act in the legislative regulation of the concession contract that still remains variously regulated in previously adopted special provisions of sectoral laws, there are still some deficiencies and dilemmas that are more or less effectively dealt with in the contractual practice. For the legal positions that are classically civil at first sight, the legislator or court practice have laid down special modified rules of civil law in most developed countries. In the course of time, these rules became part of public law / administrative law. Thus, the French legal order has best developed the rules of the public contractual law and the legal institute of the administrative contract that the Slovenian administrative theoreticians try more and more to introduce also into our legal order. KEY WORDS: • concession contract • concession partnership • public-private partnership • public interest • party equality principle • law of obligations