CONTRACT IN FAVOUR OF A THIRD PARTY

The article, based on scientific doctrine, the legislation of Ukraine and some other countries, examines certain issues related to the problems of legal regulation of a contract in a favour of a third party. A review of the main scientific papers of Ukrainian scientists, who studied the contract in favour of a third party and contractual legal relations arising from the contract in favour of a third party, was carried out. Among scientists, the issue of scientific theory of the moment when third party's right emerges under a contract in favour of a third party remains unresolved. That is the reason the article, on a methodological level, draws specific attention to the main theories of emergence of a third party's right under a contract in favour of a third party. In view of the comprehensive analysis of the norms of the Civil Code of Ukraine, attention is drawn to what theory of the moment of conclusion of a contract in favour of a third party was adopted by the legislator in the Civil Code of Ukraine. In the context of analysis of a contract in favour of third parties, attention is paid to English law, namely the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. It is clarified whether in English contract law, before the adoption of the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act, according to precedent law, the rule called "privity of contract rule" was still applied. It is also emphasized that a contract in favour of a third party should be distinguished from a contract of assignment of creditor's right to a third party (singular succession). In the case of singular succession, the previous creditor is 'removed' from the obligation, and in a contract in favour of a third party, such a replacement of the creditor in the obligation does not occur, since the creditor and the third party do not replace each other in the existing obligation, they are not successors of each other and as participants of the contractual relationship exist at the same time without excluding each other. Also, a contract in favour of a third party should be distinguished from a contract under which fulfilment is to be performed to a third person.