Argentine Legal System: Core Concepts and Principles
Sources of Law
Law: Mandatory rules sanctioned by the State, in accordance with the Constitution. They are not retroactive, can only be repealed by other laws, and are inalienable.
Customs: Repeated normal behavior.
Jurisprudence: Judgments or decrees of the courts.
Administrative Decisions: Decisions made by government officials.
Agreements Between Individuals: Arrangements (like contracts) between individuals or entities.
Counting Legal Intervals: Establishing time management in legal standards or agreements.
Persons
Natural or Visible Persons
All human beings, without distinction of individual qualities. Existence begins at conception (unborn person) and ends with natural or presumed death.
Legal or Ideal Persons
Entities or subjects to which the law grants the ability to acquire rights and obligations.
Public
Domestic and foreign states, provinces, municipalities, Catholic Church. Existence begins at foundation.
Private
Associations, foundations, civil societies, commercial companies. Existence begins from legal authorization and statute approval. Termination occurs by member decision, government law, asset extinction, depletion of objectives, or bylaw deadlines.
Attributes of Persons
Qualities inherent to natural or legal persons. Some may be lacking, except for the State and legal persons, which are unique (cannot have multiple names, addresses, etc.).
Name: Identification in society.
State: Individual’s situation within a family group.
Legal Capacity: Ability to acquire rights and obligations. Factual capacity is the ability to exercise them.
Address: Legal location for general legal relations.
Patrimony: Set of real and monetary obligations belonging to a person.
Legal Facts and Acts
Legal Facts and Acts: Events producing acquisition, modification, transfer, or extinction of rights or obligations. Can be natural or human-caused, involuntary or voluntary.
Voluntary Acts: Done with discernment, intention, and freedom. May be lawful (not prohibited) or illicit (prohibited, causing harm).
Legal Acts: Lawful voluntary human acts aiming to establish legal relations.
Unlawful Acts:
- Crimes: Intentional acts harming others (including fraud).
- Torts: Unintentional acts causing harm due to negligence.
Vices of Legal Acts (Will): Ignorance, violence, error, fraud, simulation.
Simulation: Hiding the legal nature of an act by pretending it’s another. Legal if not harming; illegal if causing injury or contrary to law.
Fraud: Debtor selling assets to avoid creditor execution.
Lesion: One party exploiting another’s need, lightness, or inexperience for disproportionate advantage.
Nullity: Judicial sanction preventing a legal act from producing effects due to vices (error, violence, fraud, etc.). Example: Nullifying a property purchase due to seller’s deception.
Obligations
Obligation: Legal relationship between two or more persons (natural or legal). The debtor has a duty to fulfill a specified service for the creditor. Obligations have three elements: subjects, object, and legal relationship.
Subject:
- Active: Creditor, who can enforce the provision.
- Passive: Debtor, who must comply with the provision.
Object: The service must be concrete, realizable, determined or determinable, lawful, and have economic value. It must be physically and legally possible.
Legal Relationship: Coercive tie linking creditor and debtor.
Extinguishing Obligations
Payment: Due compliance with the provision (not just money, but any obligation).
Novation: Replacing an obligation with a new one.
Compensation: When two people are reciprocally creditor and debtor.
Transaction: Bilateral act extinguishing disputed obligations by mutual consent.
Confusion: Creditor and debtor merging into one person.
Disclaimer: Creditor renouncing their right.
Debt Remission: Specific form of disclaimer for credit rights.
Impossibility of Payment: Obligation ceases if performance becomes physically or legally impossible without debtor’s fault.
Contracts
Contracts: Agreement between two or more people creating obligations. The most common source of obligations.
Classification of Contracts
Unilateral and Bilateral: Unilateral (one party has obligations), bilateral (both parties have obligations).
Onerous and Gratuitous: Onerous (reciprocal benefits), gratuitous (one party benefits).
Consensual and Real: Consensual (effective from consent), real (effective from delivery of the thing).
Nominate and Innominate: Nominate (specifically regulated by law), innominate (not specifically regulated).
Commutative and Aleatory: Commutative (balanced compensation), aleatory (benefits depend on uncertain event).
Formal and Informal: Formal (validity depends on specific form), informal (no specific form required).
Real Rights
Real Right: Direct, immediate relationship between a person and a thing.
Domain (Ownership): Right over material objects (movable or immovable). It is absolute, exclusive, and perpetual.
Condominium: Real right where property belongs to several persons in undivided shares.
Mortgage: Real right securing a cash credit on real estate, while the debtor retains possession.
Pledge: Security right on movable property, delivered to the creditor (possessory pledge) or registered.
Antichresis: Debtor delivers property to creditor for income to pay off debt.
Usufruct: Right to use and enjoy a thing owned by another without altering its substance.
Use and Habitation: Right to use a thing belonging to another, preserving its substance.
Easements: Real right on another’s premises for specific use or to prevent certain owner actions.
Family Law
Family: Parents and children, or broader groups united by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Kinship: Legal relationship based on blood ties, affinity, or adoption.
- Blood Kinship: Descendants or common ancestor.
- Affinity: Relationship to spouse’s blood relatives.
- Adoption: Legal bond with non-biological parents.
Marriage: Union of one man and one woman under civil law. Monogamous marriage requires consent and no legal impediments.
Impediments: Facts or situations precluding marriage (diriment or impedient).
Divorce: Legal separation (body and property) or absolute dissolution of marriage.
Filiation: Legal bond with parents (natural or adoptive).
- Natural Filiation: Within or outside marriage.
- Adoption: Full (extinguishes ties with biological family) or simple (maintains some ties).
Succession
Succession: Transmission of rights and liabilities from a deceased person to heirs.
Lawful Succession: Order of preference: descendants, ascendants, spouse, siblings, other collateral relatives.
Willful Succession: Disposition of assets by will. Forced heirs (descendants, ascendants, spouse) have a reserved portion.
Vacant Inheritances: Assets go to the State if no heirs exist.