Rechtsfolgendifferenz im Recht der Vertragsrückabwicklung

The thesis delivers a critical analysis of the rules of the rescission of contracts in the current German legal system. It deals with the three major systems governing the unwinding of contracts: the unwinding after a termination of the contract, the unwinding after a consumer’s withdrawal and the unwinding based on the right of unjust enrichment. The historical development of this field is shown to be one of convergence. The remaining differences within the three systems, however, are numerous. The central statement of the thesis is that convincing reasons for these differences cannot be found and that, therefore, the matter of the unwinding of contracts should be governed by a uniform system. Central to elaborating this dogmatic argumentation is the analysis of the several reasons for a failure of a contract. It is shown that the telos of the reasons for the failure does not legitimate the existence of diverging rules for the rescission.