Revision Of The Statute Of Limitations

On 15 June 2018, the Swiss parliament passed a revision of the statute of limitations. A special category of damages was created, namely personal injuries, to which a relative limitation period of three years and an absolute limitation period of 20 years will generally apply in the future. In addition, after a long legislative history of this revision, only one significant amendment remained, namely the extension of the relative limitation period from one to three years for non-contractual claims and unjust enrichment claims.

1 BACKGROUND AND CORE CONTENT OF THE REVISION

In the mid-1980s, efforts began to comprehensively revise and standardize liability law. However, this undertaking encountered great difficulties. Over the years, a viable consensus only developed for an amendment of the statute of limitations in the field of personal injuries and a few other selective adjustments. The Federal Council therefore submitted a corresponding draft with adjustment