Understanding Legal Obligations: Debt, Liability, and Enforcement
Understanding Legal Obligations
Definition of Obligation
The term “obligation” has several meanings:
- The basis of a legal duty
- The correlation between subjective rights and legal duties
- A creative act establishing a legal situation
- A synonym for loans requested by corporations
An obligation requires a debtor, bound to fulfill a duty, and a creditor, entitled to receive the fulfillment.
Several types of obligations exist, including complex obligations (where each party is both creditor and debtor) and obligations for compensation.
An obligation represents the network of rights and obligations between creditor and debtor.
Structure of an Obligational Relationship
The elements of an obligation’s structure, linked by the legal relationship, are:
- Subjects: The creditor (asset holder) can demand fulfillment, while the debtor must provide it.
- Object: The provision the creditor can demand and the debtor must fulfill.
- Legal Link: The relationship between the creditor’s power and the debtor’s duty.
- Cause: The reason for the obligation.
Law Enforcement and Obligations
Contract law, a part of civil law, governs obligational relationships. It is crucial due to the prevalence of social obligations in daily life. This complex area involves securities, which are obligations with significant social impact. We constantly engage in obligations in various forms.
The law of obligations aims to avoid constant reference to specific contracts.
As a branch of legal science, it studies the importance of obligations. Contract law differs from the sources of law, such as real rights (e.g., mortgages).
Legal scholars debate whether contract law should precede or follow the study of real rights. Contract law stands as a distinct field.
The Obligational Link
In Roman times, individuals made promises before others, signifying submission to create a bond. These solemn rituals meant that breaking the bond subjected the debtor to the creditor’s control (manus injectio), potentially leading to enslavement. The Lex Poetelia Papiria later reformed this system.
Over time, the obligational link became dematerialized and patrimonialized.
By the Middle Ages, the obligational link separated from the criminal realm.
Classical doctrine posits the essence of obligation in the debtor’s conduct—the relationship between the creditor’s power and the debtor’s duty. The link can also be seen as the required conduct itself and its resulting object.
Debt and Liability
Liability is the debtor’s submission to the creditor’s coercive power. The debtor is responsible for the obligation’s existence and liable for its fulfillment.
Certain situations in our legal system involve liability without debt, as outlined in Articles 1365, 1366, and 1368 of the Civil Code. These articles allow creditors of one spouse, for debts incurred solely by that spouse, to seize marital property, even if it belongs to the non-debtor spouse. However, the debtor spouse is not liable with separate property for community debts. Article 1319 II of the Civil Code states that for household debts owed by one spouse, the other spouse is liable with their separate property.
De Castro argues that liability is the power to demand and claim warranty. While debt pertains to the debtor, their property serves as security. Therefore, Article 1365 of the Civil Code is imprecise in stating that marital property responds directly; it should state that the debtor spouse responds with the marital property.
Article 1911 of the Civil Code establishes the principle of universal liability, where the debtor is liable with all assets, rights, and actions.
Natural Obligations
Natural obligations are unenforceable, lacking the creditor’s action to implement liability. However, if the debtor voluntarily fulfills the obligation, they cannot later seek restitution.
Examples of natural obligations include:
- Debts from prohibited gambling
- Interest debts not specified in loan agreements but paid by the borrower
- Paid prescribed debts
Ten-Picazo disputes these as natural obligations. Gambling debts involve unenforceability due to illegality. Interest payments suggest a tacit agreement between parties. Paid prescribed debts involve waiving a legal right, representing a moral or social duty.
Navarre’s Compilation Law 510 addresses natural obligations, stating that payments made due to moral duty are non-recoverable. The Supreme Court ruling of March 25, 1993, considered a lessee’s commitment to vacate a property a moral obligation, preventing later claims of error after voluntary compliance.
Sources of Obligations
Article 1089 of the Civil Code lists the sources of obligations: law, contracts, quasi-contracts, and wrongful acts or omissions involving fault or negligence. Ten-Picazo critiques this, advocating for a dualistic division.
Article 1090 states that legal obligations are not presumed and are enforceable only if expressly defined in the Code or special laws.
Legal obligations are non-voluntary.
Requiring someone without prior voluntary action necessitates explicit legal authorization to create the required link.
Unilateral Will and Obligations
Can a unilateral declaration of will create an obligation? While the prevailing view denies this, some legal cases recognize unilateral will as generating obligations, particularly in commercial contexts. Jurisprudence also tends to limit this to exceptional cases.
Ten-Picazo argues that a unilateral declaration of will is insufficient for a complete mandatory relationship, serving only as a basis for a potential credit claim based on alleged acceptance.
Public Promise of Reward
A public promise of reward obligates the offeror to pay anyone who performs the specified act, regardless of whether they acted in response to the reward.
Martínez de Aguirre specifies that the promise must be directed towards an indeterminate group within a defined category.
The reward can be for:
- Achieving a result
- Performing an activity
- A negligent attitude
- Being in a given situation
Public promises of reward are revocable but must be made in good faith. Ragel argues that such promises only create obligations if irrevocable, at least for a specific period.