We explain what a contract is and the types of contracts that can be made. Also, its parts and its difference with an agreement.
What is a contract?
A contract is called a legal document that expresses a common agreement between two or more people qualified to do so (known as the parties to the contract), who are bound by this document towards a certain purpose or thing, whose fulfillment must always occur bilaterally, or otherwise the contract will be considered broken and invalid.
In other words, a contract is a agreement of obligations and rights between two people (legal and/or natural) who agree to respect the terms agreed upon in writing, and submit to the laws of the country to resolve any dispute that arises regarding the terms of the agreement. In each country or region of the world there are different requirements for drawing up a contract, but its essence is always more or less the same.
The contracts are an inheritance from the legal system of the Roman Empire in whose law the convent (agreement), which included two ways of manifesting itself: the pactum when there was no name or cause, and the contracts when there were. The latter were typified and named in Roman Law and are the predecessors of our current documents.
See also: Union
Contract types
Contracts can be classified into:
- Unilateral and bilateral. Contracts will be unilateral when only one of the parties involved acquires the obligations, while in bilateral contracts both parties acquire obligations of reciprocal compliance.
- Onerous and free Onerous contracts are those in which there are reciprocal encumbrances and benefits between the parties, and at the same time both undertake a certain amount of sacrifice, as in the case of sales and purchases. Free contracts, on the other hand, provide the benefit to only one of the parties, leaving the obligations to the other, as in bailment contracts.
- Commutative and random This classification applies only to bilateral contracts, since commutative contracts are those in which the benefits promised by the parties are certain from the moment the legal act is concluded, such as in the sale of a property. In random cases, however, the benefit will depend on some future or fortuitous event, such as wills.
- Main and accessories Main contracts are autonomous pieces of jurisprudence, they do not depend on anyone, while accessory contracts are supplementary to a main contract on which they depend.
- Instantaneous and subsequent tract Instant or single contract contracts are those that are fulfilled at the moment they are concluded, while successive contracts are fulfilled in a specific period and which may or may not be periodic, with interruptions or intermittent, according to mutual agreement of the parties.
- Consensual and real Consensual contracts are those in which the manifest agreement of the parties is sufficient and sufficient to establish the agreement; while real contracts conclude when one party delivers to the other the thing on which the agreement relates.
- Private and public This classification depends on whether the people who sign it are private entities (third parties), or whether it is a contract with the State, respectively.
- Formal, solemn or non-solemn and informal Contracts are formal when the law mandates that consent between the parties be expressed by a certain means to validate the agreement, and they will be informal when this is not necessary. At the same time, formal contracts will be solemn when they also require certain rites to become valid (such as marriage) and not solemn when they do not require it.
- Nominated and atypical Nominated or typical contracts are those provided for and regulated by law, while unnamed or atypical contracts can be hybrids between several contracts or perhaps novel forms of the same, not yet contemplated in any respective legal code.
Parties to a contract
Contracts commonly present a lot of formal freedom, as long as all the relevant and necessary information is included in them. However, they usually have sections such as the following:
- Qualification Where the nature of the contract is indicated.
- Noun body First section where the parties involved are identified and contextual information is provided such as the date of signing the contract, the intervening representations, the identification of the objects or services committed, etc.
- Exposure Where the background and recorded facts are given, and necessary explanatory clauses are included later.
- Regulatory body Where the agreements signed between the parties and the possible sanctions, if any, are detailed.
- Closing Formula for ending the contract that includes the signatures of the parties.
- Annexes If necessary.
Difference between contract and agreement
In principle, All contracts are agreements, but Not all agreements are contracts. This is because agreements are mutual agreements established by people and that oblige them to comply with the commitment, but without the intervention of the law. For this reason, they are usually oral and depend on the commitment and ethical and moral disposition of those involved.
Contracts, on the other hand, are made in accordance with the law and are therefore protected by the legal institutions of the State. For that reason they are duly written and recorded.
