Gesamthandlung

Gesamthandlung, literally “joint action,” is a concept in civil law describing a legal act that is not produced by a single declaration, but by the collective declaration of several persons. The key feature is that the legal effect is intended to bind the group as a whole or a subset of its members, and the act only comes about when the required participants contribute their part of the declaration. A Gesamthandlung thus represents a multilateral or collective form of a will or declaration, distinct from unilateral acts by one person or bilateral contracts formed by two independent declarations.

The concept is used to analyze situations in which a legal transaction is created only by the concurrence or joint consent of multiple actors, such as contracts entered into by co-owners, partnerships or associations acting through a common decision, or transactions where representation is exercised collectively. In these cases, the general aim is that the group’s will can be meaningfully expressed only by the combined acts of its members.

The legal consequences depend on the jurisdiction and the governing rules of will declarations. In many systems, a Gesamthandlung requires the participation of all essential declarants; if a required party does not participate, the act may fail or have limited effect. Conversely, once formed, the act creates rights and obligations for the defined group, and may entail joint or collective liability.

In German legal thought, Gesamthandlung is tied to discussions of multilateral legal transactions, Gesamtvertretung and the structure of will declarations.