Maina H. Public promise of reward as a form of non-contractual obligations.

This thesis is devoted to examining the theoretical and practical aspects of the legal order of formation, as well as the specifics of the structural elements of the obligation deriving from public promise of reward, features of civil liability of its participants and this legal relationship’s termination. The author defines the obligation of public promise of reward without announcing a competition as a relative civil relationship that is formed and originates as a result of developing pre-existing complex of legal relations of absolute and/or relative nature in which an undefined number of subjects have a right to complete the task formulated and announced by the promissor in public (transfer property, perform work, provide a service, pay a sum of money or any other action which is lawful and desired by the promissor), that results in the right to demand from the promissor the promised payment or reward being given to the first person that completes the task (or to several persons that completed the task by the amount defined, if the terms of the task didn’t exclude the possibility of multiple performers). Several points of view grounded in the science of civil law are discussed, concerning the public promise of reward without announcing a contest, which is an element of civil law mechanism to form a relative legal relationship between a promissor that is obliged to pay or give a reward since the moment the task is complete and a person executes the task and, if the character of the task demands it, gives the result to the promissor. Such civil law mechanism ensures the formation of a contractual relationship of public offer, concluding an agreement which calls for not only the formal acceptance, but also for some property transfer. However, unlike the public offer which can only create relations of property transfer or lease, the construction of public promise of reward without announcement of contest may furnish the obligations of providing a service, doing some work or performing other actions. Referring to the doctrinal and legal provisions of the current civil legislature of Ukraine that define the civilistic understanding of public announcement as a specific feature of the promise of reward, the author draws a conclusion that in the context of the Chapter 78 of the Civil Code of Ukraine the public announcement means that the promise is announced for general public to ensure that an undefined number of recipients are being informed of the promise and/or in such a way that enables to see that the person announcing this means to get the fulfillment not from a specific subject but from anyone among the “each and everybody” participating in the civil relationship or that the founder of the contest means to let anyone compete in it who meets or whose prepared in advance results meet the requirements put forward if there are any. The public promise in this sense opposes the private promise that is addressed to a certain person directly or indirectly and from which it is clear that the task is expected to be fulfilled only by a particular person. It is soundly established that after the task is performed that was defined by publicly promised reward without a contest announcement that afterwards was changed and/or canceled the person that performed the task may demand to be given the reward or be paid by the terms that were in force before the relative change or cancellation or by personal choice to demand the payment or reward that currently stands after the task was changed or canceled if the person fulfilled the task according to all requirements. In the paper it is concluded that the act of public promise of reward both with or without announcing a contest has a personified nature designed to ensure the stability of the civil turnover and minimize the risks of potential litigation in the future by its relatively simple procedure of execution compared to the civil agreements.