Obligations and contracts is the largest block of the Civil Law sitting, and it is the block where a candidate can lose the most marks while knowing the most doctrine. The reason is always the same: the question turns not on a rule but on a classification, and the classification decides everything that follows.
This is not a list to memorise. It is a set of pairs, each with a consequence column, because the consequence is the part that earns the mark.
The method: three columns, and the third one is the answer
For every pair, fill in:
- What it is — one clause each.
- The test — the fact that decides which side you are on.
- The consequence — what follows: who may invoke it, whether it can be ratified, whether it can be the subject of an action, what happens to third parties.
Candidates who stop at column two write answers that say "it is voidable, not void" and never say why it matters. Column three is why it matters.
The classification of defects
This is the family of pairs that generates the most questions in the whole subject, because almost any fact pattern about a contract can be resolved by placing the defect.
| Classification | What it is | The consequence to state |
|---|---|---|
| Void | It produces no legal effect from the start; the defect is inherent and cannot be cured by ratification | Nobody may be bound; the action to declare it does not prescribe in the ordinary sense; a void contract cannot be validated by confirmation |
| Voidable | Valid unless annulled; the defect is curable | Only the party in whose favour the rule exists may seek annulment, within the period; ratification extinguishes the action |
| Rescissible | Valid until rescinded, on grounds of lesion or prejudice to creditors | Rescission is a remedy against injury; it is subsidiary, and it requires that the party be the one prejudiced |
| Unenforceable | No action to compel performance, but performance already given is not recoverable on that ground | The defect is procedural as much as substantive: a third party may raise it, and ratification is possible |
| Inexistent | No contract at all — the elements are absent | Nothing to ratify, nothing to annul; the analysis stops |
Two habits make this usable under time:
- State the classification first, then the reason. "The contract is void, because the object is outside commerce" is markable in three seconds.
- State what follows from it. The number of answers that say "void" and stop is extraordinary. Void because; void so that; void and therefore the action to recover is…
Natural versus civil obligations
A pair that appears in short questions:
- Civil obligation — enforceable in court; the creditor has an action.
- Natural obligation — a duty that is not enforceable, but which, when performed voluntarily, gives the payer no right to recover.
The consequence column is where the question lives: payment of a natural obligation is not a payment by mistake, so the remedy of recovery is unavailable. A candidate who knows the definitions but not that consequence cannot answer the question.
Real versus personal rights, and the remedies attached
- Personal right — a right against a person, to do or give something. The action is a personal action, and the consequence is about venue and about what may be attached.
- Real right — a right over a thing, enforceable against the world. The action is a real action.
The distinction matters twice: substantively (against whom the right runs) and procedurally (which court, which venue) — which is why it appears in both Civil Law and Remedial Law questions.
The obligation-versus-contract boundary
Obligations arise from five sources (law, contracts, quasi-contracts, delicts, quasi-delicts). Contracts are one of them, and a question can turn on which source applies:
- Contract — obligations arise from the agreement, and the parties may fix the terms within the law.
- Quasi-contract — obligations arise from a lawful, voluntary act that benefits another, without agreement.
- Quasi-delict — obligations arise from damage caused by fault or negligence without a pre-existing relation, subject to the requirement of a relation in some cases for subsidiary liability.
The consequence difference is real: contractual liability and delictual liability differ in the defences available, the diligence standard, and the extent of recoverable damage.
The four endings of an obligation
A compact framework worth testing yourself on monthly:
- Payment or performance — including the special forms (dation in payment, application of payments, payment by cession, tender of payment and consignation).
- Loss of the thing due — and the fortuitous event analysis.
- Condonation or remission.
- Confusion or merger; compensation; novation.
Each has requisites, and each has a consequence. Novation in particular is asked in a predictable form: what kind of novation, and what is its effect on the old obligation and on its accessories.
The contract-validity checklist
For any "is this contract valid" question, walk the list in order, because a failed early element makes the later analysis irrelevant:
- Consent — given, and not vitiated.
- Object — certain, lawful, within commerce.
- Cause — for onerous contracts, the prestation.
- Form — where the law requires a form for validity, not merely for enforceability.
- Capacity — the parties'.
- Prohibitions — the specific ones on who may contract.
Then, and only then, the classification of any defect you found.
Practising the pairs
An efficient drill, forty minutes:
- Take ten past-paper questions from obligations and contracts.
- For each, write only: the classification, the test that decides it, and the consequence. Three lines.
- Check against the Code. Mark every consequence you could not state.
- Write two of them at full length, twelve minutes each.
The list of consequences you could not state is your work for the next fortnight — and it is a much better list than "revise obligations", because it is specific enough to fix.
For the sitting as a whole, see how to study Civil Law; for the property half, land titles in one sitting.