Confinement of the Law of Contract to the Enforcement of the Voluntarily Created Civil Obligation-illustrate & explain
INTRODUCTION
Obligations
Obligation in general terms refers to the duties a person is ethically supposed to obey as part of the requirement of a law or a promise or a contract made by that person. In some cases the promise or the contract is voluntarily made by the person and he/she is expected to follow it; however in other cases, the law may be a general one followed all across the state and hence all the citizens are bound to follow it.
In its general and most extensive sense, obligation is synonymous with duty. In a more technical meaning, it is a tie which binds us to pay or to do something agreeably to the laws and customs of the country in which the obligation is made. The term obligation also signifies the instrument or writing by which the contract is witnessed.
Civil Obligations
Civil obligation is a formal version of the term ‘obligation’. Civil obligations are the ones which are tied with a penalty and are attached to conditions such as, payment of money, performance of covenants or other similar actions. Civil obligations are different from bills, which are generally not backed by penalty or conditions. However, both civil obligations and bills are obligatory and the persons involved are expected to follow it and shall not cross the boundaries of the contract.
Civil obligations may also be termed as a bond or a formal promise where a person binds himself/herself under a penalty to perform a certain action. Technically defining, the term obligation is more of a sealed instrument of law.
Types of Obligations
Obligations may be broadly divided into two types:
· Imperfect obligations
· Perfect obligations
Imperfect obligations are where a person will not be at risk of being attacked legally by another person for not performing the actions which he/she was obligated to perform. The action of the person would depend on his moral and ethical values only. There is no written contract, voluntary or involuntary, which says it is mandatory for a person to perform and act according to his/her obligations. For non-performance of imperfect obligations we are accountable to God only; such as charity or gratitude. In this sense an obligation is a mere duty.
Perfect obligations are ones which gives a right to another to require us to give him something or not to do something. These obligations are either natural or moral, or they are civil. A natural or moral obligation is one which cannot be enforced by action, but which is binding on the party who makes it, in conscience and according to natural justice. As for instance, when the action is barred by the act of limitation, a natural obligation is extinguished.
Civil obligations are divided into express and implied, pure and conditional, primitive and secondary, principal and accessory, absolute and alternative, determinate and indeterminate, divisible and indivisible, single and penal, and joint and several. They are also purely personal, purely real, and both real and mixed at the same time. Express or conventional obligations are those by which the obligor binds himself in express terms to perform his obligation. An implied obligation is one which arises by operation of law; for example, if I send a person daily a loaf of bread without any express authority and the person make use of it in his/her family, the law raises an obligation on his/her part to pay me the value of the bread.
Contract
A contract is an agreement having a lawful object entered into voluntarily by two or more parties, each of whom intends to create one or more legal obligations between or among them. The elements of a contract are “offer” and “acceptance” by “competent persons” having legal capacity who exchanges “consideration” to create “mutuality of obligation.”[2] Proof of some or all of these elements may be done in writing, though contracts may be made entirely orally or by conduct.[3] The parties may be natural persons or juristic persons. A contract is a legally enforceable promise or undertaking that something will or will not occur. The word promise can be used as a legal synonym for contract. Although care is required as a promise may not have the full standing of a contract, as when it is an agreement without consideration.
According to the Indian Contract Act, an agreement enforced by law is a contract. Contract law varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another, including differences in common law compared to civil law, the impact of received law, particularly from England in common law countries, and of law codified in regional legislation.
Law of Contract
The law of contract deals with those legal relations that arise because of mutual expressions of agreement. The parties have expressed their intentions in words, or in other conduct that can be translated into words.
The belief is not at all uncommon that legal relations called contractual cannot exist unless the parties intended them to exist, and that the sole function of the courts, therefore, is one of interpretation: What was the intention of the parties? This concept is far from correct. Furthermore, the life history if any occur after acceptance of the offer-facts that may gravely affect the existing legal relations and yet may have been utterly unforeseen bythe parties. Many of these unusual legal relations are invariably described as contractual.
Therefore it appears that a necessary function of the courts is to determine the unintended legal relations as well as the intended ones.
Confinement of the Law of Contract to the Enforcement of the Voluntarily Created Civil Obligation
The law of contract confines itself to the informal enforcement of voluntarily created civil obligations. However, it does not cover the whole range of civil obligations. There are many obligations of civil nature like those enforced by law or created by the acceptance of two parties whose violation may be actionable to the law of torts or of trust or under statute, but they are outside the field of contract. The law of contract is also not able to take care of the whole range of agreements; many agreements stay outside this purview because they do not fulfil the requirement of the contract.[5]
When two people enter into a contract, they do it voluntarily and both the parties are well aware of the rules and regulations set in the contact. The parties are also aware of the fact that, if any of them violates or fails to perform according to the contract signed, both has the legal right to file a case against the violator.
The law of contract clearly states and gives the right to the involved parties to legally sue the other person in case the other person fails to act according to the expected behaviour mentioned in the contract. The law of contract provides future certainty to both the parties and protects their rights.
However, it is also mentioned that if one party violates the conditions of the contract that they voluntarily agreed to, the violator may be punished only according to the law or the punishment stated in the contract. Taking illegal actions against the violator of the contract is not allowed. When two parties get involved in a contract, they themselves bind them within the boundaries of the written contract – both in terms of their expected actions and the punishment that will result in case of failure to address the actions.
Opinion
Law has been created to protect the interest of the people and provide certainty of future actions so that people involved can rely on it and conduct and design their present actions. However, since people will not always abide by the law voluntarily and there is chance of violation, the law of contract is created, where the two parties officially enter into a written (usually) contract and the contract is backed up by a set of punishment if there is any violation of the terms of the contract. This provides security to both the parties since in case of any misconduct the affected person will have full right to file a case against the violator.
Civil obligations may also be termed as a bond or a formal promise where a person binds himself/herself under a penalty to perform a certain action. When a contract is made, the parties involved voluntarily sign the contract acknowledging the “what-to-do” and “what-not-to-do” and hence they are expected to act within the boundary set by themselves and not go against the law of contract.
Conclusion
Obligation is synonymous with duty. In a more technical meaning, it is a tie which binds us to do something agreeably to the laws and customs of the country in which the obligation is made. Civil obligation is a formal version of the term ‘obligation’. Civil obligations are the ones which are tied with a penalty and are attached to certain conditions set by the parties involved in the contract. A contract is an agreement having a lawful object entered into voluntarily by two or more parties, each of whom intends to create one or more legal obligations between or among them.[6]The law of contract deals with those legal relations that arise because of mutual expressions of agreement. The parties have expressed their intentions in words, or in other conduct that can be translated into words.[7]When two people enter into a contract, they do it voluntarily and both the parties are well aware of the rules and regulations set in the contact. The parties are also aware of the fact that, if any of them violates or fails to perform according to the contract signed, both has the legal right to file a case against the violator. The law of contract clearly states and gives the right to the involved parties to legally sue the other person in case the other person fails to act according to the expected behaviour mentioned in the contract. The law of contract provides future certainty to both the parties and protects their rights. However, the violator of the contract may be punished only according to the law or the punishment stated in the contract. Taking illegal actions against the violator of the contract is not allowed. The law of contract confines itself to the informal enforcement of voluntarily created civil obligations. However, it does not cover the whole range of civil obligations.
There are many obligations of civil nature like those enforced by law or created by the acceptance of two parties whose violation may be actionable to the law of torts or of trust or under statute, but they are outside the field of contract but are in compliance with the law of the state.
REFERENCES
1. Books and Articles
Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts: Yale Law School Press.
Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts: Yale Law School Press.
Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts :Yale Law School Press.
In Becker v. London Assur. Corp. (I918, H. L.) I17 L. T. Rep. 6og.
Leonard, G. (2006). Elements of a Contract: Nashville: B&H Publishing Group Retrieved from http://contracts.uslegal.com/elements-of-a-contract/, 18 February, 2013
Leonard, G. (2006). Elements of a Contract: Nashville: B&H Publishing Group Retrieved from http://contracts.uslegal.com/elements-of-a-contract/, 18 February, 2013
Sen, A.K. (2010) Commercial Law Including Company Law and Industrial Law (Prof. S. Mukherjee, Ed. Kolkata: The World Press Private Limited
Singh, A. (2005) Law of Contract and Specific Relief. (9 ed.), : Eastern Book Company.
West’s Encyclopedia of American Law. [2002]. 2 ed.: The Gale Group. Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/promise
Willmott, L, Christensen, S, Butler, D, & Dixon, B 2009 Contract Law, Third Edition North Melbourne, NM : Oxford University Press.
2. Statutes
Indian Contract Act 1872
[1] Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts: Yale Law School Press.
[2] Leonard, G. (2006). Elements of a Contract: Nashville: B&H Publishing Group Retrieved from http://contracts.uslegal.com/elements-of-a-contract/, 18 February, 2013
[3] West’s Encyclopedia of American Law. [2002]. 2 ed.: The Gale Group. Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/promise.
[4] Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts :Yale Law School Press.
[5] Singh, A. (2005) Law of Contract and Specific Relief. (9 ed.), : Eastern Book Company.
[6] Leonard, G. (2006). Elements of a Contract: Nashville: B&H Publishing Group Retrieved from http://contracts.uslegal.com/elements-of-a-contract/, 18 February, 2013
[7] Corbin. A (2010) The Conditions of the Law of Contracts :Yale Law School Press.