THE EFFECT OF PRESCRIPTION ON ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS

Time is a legal fact capable of exerting a significant influence upon legal relations. The influence of time (arising independently of human will and directly on the basis of law) can be either creative or destructive. Namely, the lapse of time can create a subjective right, modify or end it. One of the legal institutions in which the influence of time on subjective right comes to full expression is the prescription (statute of limitation) regulated by the provisions of the Law on Obligation Relations in Serbian law. It stipulates that the right to performance of an obligation is subject to prescription; this right ceases to exist by the expiration of statutory limitation period (prescription) in which the creditor could request performance. The debtor may perform his obligation voluntarily or forcefully, in the enforcement proceedings initiated on the proposal of the creditor and, only exceptionally, ex officio in cases prescribed by law. In this paper, the author analyses the influence of periods of prescription on enforcement proceedings and the possibility to suspend such proceedings due to limitation period (prescription). Two hypothetical situations are analysed. One is the situation of the suspension of enforcement proceedings due to the fact that the period of prescription has expired before the commencement of enforcement. We see this situation as undisputed. The second situation is the suspension of enforcement proceedings because the limitation period occurred during such proceedings. It seems to us that this situation can provoke some doubts; therefore, we raise the question whether prescription is even possible in enforcement proceedings