Lexipedia

Abuse of rights

Abuse of rights prevents a person from relying on a legal entitlement in a manner contrary to good faith or the purpose of the law.

In Swiss law, abuse of rights is a fundamental limit on the exercise of private and public-law entitlements. A person may formally hold a right yet lose protection when invoking it is manifestly unfair, contradictory, purely vexatious, or contrary to the right’s social or legal purpose. The doctrine is closely linked to good faith and applies cautiously, because it restricts rights that otherwise exist. Comparable ideas appear in many civil-law systems and in equity-based reasoning.