AIG, illegal contracts and illicit profits.

1- Contract law: a contract has to be fair, just and reasonable (common sense); an unjust contract can be illegal...

2- Illegal contract is ex post facto which means after declared unjust... damages can be sought...

3- Profits produced by ilegal contracts constitute what is known as illicit profits...


4- Measures to confiscate ‘illicit profits’ earned from commerce have a historical precedent in the consideration of business endeavors with the enemy and the black market during the Second World War such as in occupied France but the historical effort has been generally considered to have been a failure.
An examination of the confiscation effort from archival sources shows that the purge achieved limited success, but that complete success was rendered impossible by factors that limited other post-war purges: the shortage of trained personnel and investigative resources, the need for hard evidence for legal procedures, the efforts of collaborators to cover their tracks, and the evolution of public opinion, which was quickly disappointed by the slow pace of confiscations.
Although success was limited, the effort to punish the profiteers was a matter of elementary fiscal justice and an essential step in the restoration of the authority of the state.

General remark- most big interest groups lobby against this legal philosophy because of evident reasons, examples in environmental caselaw and torts (product liability-consumer responsibility).


(Español:)

1- Ley de contratos: un contrato tiene que ser justo, prudente y razonable (sentido común); un contrato injusto puede ser ilegal…

2- El contrato ilegal es ex post facto después de que se declara ilegalidad… los daños puedan ser buscados, puede ser un caso de los agravios…

3- Los beneficios producidos por los contratos ilegales constituyen qué se conoce como beneficios ilícitos/ enrriquecimiento injusto…


4- Las medidas para confiscar beneficios ilícitos ganados de comercio tienen un precedente histórico en la consideración de los esfuerzos del negocio con el enemigo y el mercado negro durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial por ejemplo en Francia ocupada por los Nazis pero el esfuerzo histórico se ha considerado generalmente como haber fallado.

Aunque el éxito fuera limitado, el esfuerzo para castigar a los que se habian enrriquecido ilícitamente era una cuestión de justicia fiscal elemental y un paso esencial en la restauración de la autoridad del estado/ 'rule of law'.