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The exceptio non adimpleti contractus is a defence that can be raised in the case of a reciprocal contract. In essence, it is a remedy that allows a party to withhold his own performance, accompanied by a right to ward off a claim for such performance until the other party has duly performed his or her obligations under the contract.
The first use of such defence was attested in the historical sources in concern to the Roman Law. There, it was used as an ' exceptio ', i.e. in response to a legal claim from the other party in a contractual obligation.
Two requirements must be met in order for the exceptio non adimpleti contractus to be available. The two performances must be reciprocal to one another; and the other party must be obliged to perform first.
It is provided in the legislation of all European countries using the Civil Law System, especially those with strong influence from the Napoleonic Code (1805).
The law of obligations is one branch of private law under the civil law legal system and so-called "mixed" legal systems. It is the body of rules that organizes and regulates the rights and duties arising between individuals. The specific rights and duties are referred to as obligations, and this area of law deals with their creation, effects and extinction.
A holographic will, or olographic testament, is a will and testament which is a holographic document, meaning that it has been entirely handwritten and signed by the testator. Holographic wills have been treated differently by different jurisdictions throughout history. For example, some jurisdictions historically required that a holographic will had to be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator's signature and intent.
A guarantee is a form of transaction in which one person, to obtain some trust, confidence or credit for another, agrees to be answerable for them. It may also designate a treaty through which claims, rights or possessions are secured. It is to be differentiated from the colloquial "personal guarantee" in that a guarantee is a legal concept which produces an economic effect. A personal guarantee, by contrast, is often used to refer to a promise made by an individual which is supported by, or assured through, the word of the individual. In the same way, a guarantee produces a legal effect wherein one party affirms the promise of another by promising to themselves pay if default occurs.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Aruba and Curaçao, two constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in accordance with a ruling from the Supreme Court of the Netherlands issued on 12 July 2024. In September 2021, a lower court in Curaçao ruled that preventing same-sex couples from marrying violates the equality provisions of the Constitution of Curaçao, but left the decision of whether to legalise same-sex marriage up to the Parliament. In December 2022, the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba ruled on appeal that Aruba's and Curaçao's same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional. The court order was set to go into effect on 7 March 2023 if not appealed to the Supreme Court; however, the governments of both Curaçao and Aruba subsequently appealed. On 12 July 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in Aruba and Curaçao with immediate effect.
The Netherlands uses civil law. The role of case law is small in theory, although in practice it is impossible to understand the law in many fields without also taking into account the relevant case law. The Dutch system of law is based on the French Civil Code with some influence from Roman-Dutch law and pre-codal customary law. The new Civil Code was heavily influenced by the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch.
The Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations 1980, also known as the Rome Convention, is a measure in private international law or conflict of laws which creates a common choice of law system in contracts within the European Union. The convention determines which law should be used, but does not harmonise the substance. It was signed in Rome, Italy on 19 June 1980 and entered into force in 1991.
Roman-Dutch law is an uncodified, scholarship-driven, and judge-made legal system based on Roman law as applied in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. As such, it is a variety of the European continental civil law or ius commune. While Roman-Dutch law was superseded by Napoleonic codal law in the Netherlands proper as early as the beginning of the 19th century, the legal practices and principles of the Roman-Dutch system are still applied actively and passively by the courts in countries that were part of the Dutch colonial empire, or countries which are influenced by former Dutch colonies: Guyana, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Suriname, and the formerly Indonesian-occupied East Timor. It also heavily influenced Scots law. It also had some minor impact on the laws of the American state of New York, especially in introducing the office of Prosecutor (schout-fiscaal).
Canadian contract law is composed of two parallel systems: a common law framework outside Québec and a civil law framework within Québec. Outside Québec, Canadian contract law is derived from English contract law, though it has developed distinctly since Canadian Confederation in 1867. While Québecois contract law was originally derived from that which existed in France at the time of Québec's annexation into the British Empire, it was overhauled and codified first in the Civil Code of Lower Canada and later in the current Civil Code of Quebec, which codifies most elements of contract law as part of its provisions on the broader law of obligations. Individual common law provinces have codified certain contractual rules in a Sale of Goods Act, resembling equivalent statutes elsewhere in the Commonwealth. As most aspects of contract law in Canada are the subject of provincial jurisdiction under the Canadian Constitution, contract law may differ even between the country's common law provinces and territories. Conversely; as the law regarding bills of exchange and promissory notes, trade and commerce, maritime law, and banking among other related areas is governed by federal law under Section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867; aspects of contract law pertaining to these topics are harmonised between Québec and the common law provinces.
The Burgerlijk Wetboek is the Civil Code of the Netherlands. Early versions were largely based on the Napoleonic Code. The Dutch Civil Code was substantively reformed in 1992. The Code deals with the rights of natural persons, legal persons, patrimony and succession. It also sets out the law of property, obligations and contracts, and conflict of laws. Proposed amendments will add a Book on intellectual property.
The European civil code (ECC) is a proposed harmonisation of private law across the European Union.
A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of those at a future date. The activities and intentions of the parties entering into a contract may be referred to as contracting. In the event of a breach of contract, the injured party may seek judicial remedies such as damages or equitable remedies such as specific performance or rescission. A binding agreement between actors in international law is known as a treaty.
South African contract law is "essentially a modernized version of the Roman-Dutch law of contract", and is rooted in canon and Roman laws. In the broadest definition, a contract is an agreement two or more parties enter into with the serious intention of creating a legal obligation. Contract law provides a legal framework within which persons can transact business and exchange resources, secure in the knowledge that the law will uphold their agreements and, if necessary, enforce them. The law of contract underpins private enterprise in South Africa and regulates it in the interest of fair dealing.
BK Tooling (Edms) Bpk v Scope Precision Engineering (Edms) Bpk, an important case in South African contract law, was heard and decided in the Appellate Division on 16 September 1977 and 15 September 1978 respectively. The case dealt with remedies for the breach of a reciprocal contract in cases where the creditor has been prevented from performing fully his obligations by the failure of the other party's necessary co-operation. The court held that the creditor may in such circumstances claim performance, but that his claim will be subject to a reduction by the costs he saves in not having fully to make his counterperformance.
In Ntshiqa v Andreas Supermarket (Pty) Ltd, an important case in the South African law of lease, the parties entered into a written lease agreement in terms whereof Ntshiqa let to Andreas Supermarket certain business premises for a period of five years for the operation of a supermarket. The agreement provided that, in the event of non-payment of rent, or the breach of any condition of the lease, the lessor would be entitled to cancel the lease and retake possession of the premises.
A stichting is a Dutch legal entity with limited liability, not aiming to make profit, with no members or share capital, that exists for a specific purpose that is serving a public, social or an idealistic interest. A stichting is allowed to make profit but the legal condition is that this profit must be spend on achieving the foundation's goals. This form of entity makes it possible to separate functions of ownership and control.
Labour law regulates the legal relationship in Bulgaria between individual workers and employees as well as between coalitions and representative bodies.
In the Netherlands, a friendship contract is an agreement which regulates the consequences of a social relationship between two or more persons under family law as well as property law. Such a contract has no prescribed form. From an evidential point of view a written or notarial form is preferred. In addition, parties are in principle (see article 3:40 of the Dutch Civil Code free to determine the content of their agreement. For example, a tangible or intangible duty of care can be established, a power of attorney can be granted in case a party can no longer act on his own behalf, and an arrangement can be made for the event that one party obtains a good that, in whole or in part, is financed with assets of the other. In the Dutch law of persons and Dutch family law, there is no legal effect attached to friendship contracts; this not expected to change in the near future. The friendship contract is therefore currently governed by general Dutch contract and property law.
In Bulgaria, the law of obligations is set out by the Obligations and Contracts Act (OCA). According to article 20a, OCA contracts shall have the force of law for the parties that conclude them.
In Catholic canon law, the canon law of contract follows that of the civil jurisdiction in which Catholic canon law operates.
Wouter Snijders was a Dutch judge and legal scholar. He was justice on the Supreme Court of the Netherlands between 1970 and 1986 and served as vice president from 1986 to 1998. Snijders also served as chair of the Court's civil chamber. He was the government's commissioner for the introduction of the new Burgerlijk Wetboek between 1971 and 1995. Snijders is credited as being one of the most influential civil law scholars of the Netherlands.