Key Concepts in Civil Law: Property, Contracts, and Obligations
Legal Capacity and Capacity to Act
Legal capacity is the ability to have rights and obligations. Capacity to act is the ability to exercise rights and obligations. The clearest example can be seen in the theme of inheritance, where a child, despite being the owner of the estate, may not dispose of it fully until they come of age.
Property and Usufruct
Property is the domain, absolute dominion over a thing or a right (Article 348 of the Civil Code). Usufruct is the property law to enjoy something completely alien without altering its mode of being (Article 467 of the Civil Code). The difference is that usufruct has possession but not ownership.
Tort
Tort: Whoever by act or omission causes damage to another, with intervening fault or negligence, is obliged to repair the damage (Article 1902 of the Civil Code). Example: If your dog spoiled the garden of our neighbor, we are obliged to repair the damage it has done.
Characteristics of a Sales Contract
Article 1445 of the Civil Code defines the contract of sale as the contract whereby one party undertakes to deliver a certain thing and the other to pay for it a certain price, in money or another sign that represents it. The doctrine points to the following characteristics:
- Consensual, as it is perfected by the consent of the parties.
- Bilateral, as it consists of two parts: the buyer and the seller.
- Merely required contract because it forces the seller to deliver the thing and the buyer to pay the price.
- It is a contract for consideration, where benefits are exchanged (which by price).
- The change takes place by the money or sign that represents it.
- It is a main contract (not ancillary to another as the deposit) and typical as regulated by law.
De Facto Unions
If the union is defined as a de facto relationship, not a legal one, for two or more persons, it could be established that they:
- Attend to this union freely.
- Are not blood relatives up to the third degree.
- Are not bound by a previous marriage.
Buying a Property
The first thing to do would be to see if you like it and if it suits your needs. Although, as I think this is not the answer expected in a review of Civil Law, I will tell you that I would approach the Land Registry to see the inscription of the property and the data recorded on it, such as a description of the property, owner, mortgage charges, etc.
Release of the Obligation
That income is appropriated to the judicial authority.
Probation and Reception
Probation: The trial issued as a result of the verification of the work, involving the obligation to accept. Reception: The results from the delivery or provision made by the contractor and the obligation that arises for the principal in such sense for approving the work. The reception will ultimately occur after 30 days of the work being given. Example: Upon completion of renovations at my house, I verify that they have been as agreed in the contract works, giving my approval, if successful, and I will receive the work definitively after 30 days.
Distinctions Between Mortgages, Liens, and Anticresis
- Mortgage: Security interests in real property entitling the creditor to promote the sale of the mortgaged property in case of default of debt whose security it constitutes.
- Lien: Movable real law that authorizes the holder to promote foreclosure of the thing offered as collateral to meet the unfulfilled obligation.
- Anticresis: Property law by which the creditor acquires the right to receive the fruits of an immovable of his debtor with the obligation to apply them to the payment of interest if they should, and then to the capital of credit.
Prescription and Lapse
Prescription: Technically, a legal fact that determines the acquisition or extinguishment of rights under the course of time determined by the law. There are two classes: Acquisitive or usucaption and Extinctive. In short, it is computed from the fact that over time stipulated by the law. Lapse: Termination of rights by lapse of time makes the law, without it can be stopped by any action. It differs and contrasts the concept of limitation. It is the abandonment of the procedure.
Dolo and Culpa
Dolo: Vice of consent; words or machinations of one party to another encouraging the conclusion of a contract under onerous conditions and without them there would have been held (Articles 1269 and 1270 of the Civil Code). Machination or artifice, to act in bad faith. Culpa: Or negligence. Failure by the debtor of the diligence required by the nature of the obligation and corresponds to the personal circumstances of the time and place. (Article 1104 of the Civil Code). Lack of diligence.
Bankruptcy and Suspension of Payments
Bankruptcy: A situation in which a person can be declared when the passive trader exceeds the assets and has failed to pay its current obligations (Articles 874 and following of the Commercial Code). That is, the business can no longer function. Suspension of Payments: When you cannot pay all the debts it has with its creditors.