Morals of the Church
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Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

§ I. On the Notion and Division of Contract

828.

I. Notion. A contract is the consent of two or more persons to some agreement, by which each party or one party binds himself to it. It differs from a mere convention, which is the consent of two or more persons to some agreement, without any one of them binding himself.

ContractsThe nature of contract

829.

II. Division. Contracts are chiefly distinguished:

  1. Into named and unnamed, according as it enjoys a proper name in law, or lacks one. Unnamed contracts are: Do ut des, I give that you may give; Do ut facias, I give that you may do; Facio ut des, I do that you may give; Facio ut facias, I do that you may do.

  2. Into unilateral and bilateral, according as only one party or each party undertakes an obligation.

  3. Into gratuitous, onerous, and mixed. A contract is gratuitous when one party furnishes an advantage to the other gratuitously. It is onerous when each party binds himself to an equivalent or nearly equivalent burden. It is mixed when one party binds himself to a burden which is compensated by the other party only in part, as if something is given under a relatively light burden.

Corollary. The division of contracts into unilateral and bilateral almost, but not wholly, coincides with the division of contracts into gratuitous and onerous. The former division regards only the obligation of one party or both parties; the latter also regards the mutual compensation of the burden undertaken. Hence, for example, a donation without an added burden is a gratuitous and unilateral contract; lease-hire is an onerous and bilateral contract; commodatum is a gratuitous and bilateral contract.

  1. Into consensual and real, according as in its species it is perfected by consent alone, as buying-selling, or in its species is not perfected without delivery of the thing, as a mutuum.

  2. Into express or explicit, and tacit or implicit, according as consent is manifested by word or by writing, or is gathered from some fact, for example from the undertaking of some office. A tacit contract is rather often called a quasi-contract by theologians.1

  3. Into solemn and non-solemn, according as for its validity some certain form prescribed by law is required or not required.

  4. Into vested and naked, according as it admits or does not admit an action in court.

1 By jurists a quasi-contract is called a licit act of a human being which does not include mutual consent, but to which law attaches the rights and obligations of a contract, as if someone without a mandate conducts the affairs of another who is absent.

ContractsThe nature of contract