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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 543-553
The statement of this dierence in the regime led the Austrian doctrine
to depart from Savigny’s thesis in the analysis of ABGB and to the vision of a
transfer performed without an error and a previous obligation, rather a gift.
Today, nally, the direction prevails, indicating as a causa Ubergabe, along
to full the obligation preceding the transfer, any permissible intention.
Thus, it is recognized that the modus must be accompanied by a causa,
interpreted, however, in the sense of a permissible goal. The Austrian
system, therefore, can be placed in an intermediate position between the
system of simple modus and the system of cumulation titulus plus modus.
Recently, the objectivist interpretation has regained some followers.
The transfer of ownership of movable property in the light of comparative
law, the Code by means of art. 931 subordinates the validity of the gift to
the notarial form. The interpreter has always recognized the validity of
the manual gift, no matter what its cost. The doctrine of the manual gift
reinforces the doctrine of the «state of error», which is meant to subordinate
the demand for payment of the improper: for one who pays what should not
be paid, knowing that he/she owes nothing, can be regarded as a giver.
In France, as in other countries, a person who pays in fulllment of a
natural obligation cannot demand back what he/she paid.
Almost any transfer of ownership, made without an error regarding
the causa to transfer ownership, is carried out either out of a sense of duty
(and falls under the payment of an in-kind obligation), or out of generosity
(and falls under manual donations). In both cases, the ownership will be
transferred as a result of the transfer. The error of solvens opens the way
to the means provided for in his/her favor, namely, a claim for reverse
reclamation. We can say that the transfer has the same degree of abstraction
that we nd in Austria. We can also say that in France, anyone who wants
to alienate has a choice between a system of causal contract and a system
of transfer, accompanied by an unmixed will to alienate (Andreev, 2005).
The actual applicable law and the legislative law also dier in Germany.
The legislative rule in Germany is based on modus. The following are
distributed in business practice: the establishment of ownership, which
takes over the place of transfer, and the commission of the transfer under
the condition (even tacit), according to which such a transfer does not have
an eect if the main contract preceding it is invalid.
In Holland, Switzerland, and Turkey, there is a system of double props,
as in Austria; and, as in Austria, in Switzerland, payment of an improper,
made without error, is considered to be transferring ownership; in Holland
and Turkey, on the other hand, the interpretation rejects this decision as it
considers it to be in conict with the rule giving title to alienation.
In Italy, legal sources voice French decisions, but the interpreter refuses
to deviate from the props of the title, except for very modest concessions
made in the eld of manual donation and natural obligations.