Disputation I: On Contracts in General

TO CONTRACT signifies to draw many into one; hence its first effect is obligation, which is a bond of law by which one is bound to another to do or not to do something, as it is said §. 1. Institut. de oblig. et l. 1. ff. de pactis. But for contracting this obligation there is required first that the persons be capable, second that an intention of obligating oneself intervene; then that they be compelled neither by fear nor by fraud. For since a contract is a free act, whatever destroys voluntariness is against it. And nothing is so contrary to this as error or fraud, l. per errorem, ff. de iurisd. omnium Iud. And these things, we shall prove, are required for absolute contracts; but there are also others conditional, modified in various ways by Law, about which I shall also inquire; but first something must be said of the Quiddity and Division of Contract.