Abuse of rights

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.