A promise is a commitment by someone to do or not do something. As a noun promise means a declaration assuring that one will or will not do something. As a verb it means to commit oneself by a promise to do or give. [1] It can also mean a capacity for good, similar to a value that is to be realized in the near future. [2]
In the law of contract, an exchange of promises is usually held to be legally enforceable, according to the Latin maxim pacta sunt servanda .
There are many types of promises. There are solemn promises, such as marriage vows or military oaths and are conventions. There are legal contracts, enforceable by law. Or, there are fairy tale promises, regrettable and problematic at the time, they must be honored. And lastly, there are election promises, commitments that most people realize will later be shaped by politics and compromise.
Both an oath and an affirmation can be a promise. One special kind of promise is the vow.
A notable type of promise is an election promise. Election promises are pledges that will be later shaped by politics and the cooperation of individuals. [3]
A promise is a manifestation of intent to act or refrain from acting in a specified way at some point in the future. [4] It's communicated by one party, to at least one additional party, to signify a commitment has been made. The person manifesting intent is the Promisor. The person to whom the manifestation is addressed is the Promisee.
In law, contracts are created by a process of offer and acceptance. An offer to enter into a binding contract consists of an indication by the Oferror to be legally bound by the terms indicated in the offer once the person to whom the offer is addressed, the Offeree, has accepted the offer in the manner indicated in the offer (if any). Once acceptance has taken place, a binding contract has come into existence and both parties are legally bound by its terms. A contract is therefore a voluntarily assumed legal obligation. A party who fails to perform his obligations under the contract is said to be in breach of contract and is liable to compensate the other party. Compensation normally takes the form of payment of a sum of money sufficient to place the party entitled to damages in the same position as in which that party would have been if the contract had been performed. For instance, if A agrees to sell a car to B for $10,000 and B agrees to pay, then if A fails to deliver the car, B would be entitled to compensation sufficient to enable B to purchase a similar car without having to spend more than the agreed price. Therefore, if by the time of the breach the price of the car has increased by 10%, A would be liable to pay B $1,000, assuming that B has not paid anything yet. If B has paid a deposit of $5,000, then B would be entitled to restitution of his deposit plus the $1,000. A contract may consist of mutual undertakings, as in the example just given, where A agreed to deliver a car and B agrees to pay for it. Such contracts are known as bilateral contracts. But a contract may only give rise to an undertaking by one party, as where A agrees to pay B if B finds a particular car which A has been trying to acquire. B is under no duty to search but would be entitled to payment if she finds the car.
Other types of promises would include solemn promises which includes marriage vows and military oaths. People also make fairy tale promises which are regrettable and difficult at the time the promise is made but must still be honored. [5]
In loan guarantees, a commitment requires to meet an equity commitment, as well as other conditions, before the loan guarantee is closed.
Religions have similar attitudes towards promises.
In Christianity, with regard to keeping promises, Ecclesiastes 5:5–6 states: "Better not to promise at all than to make a promise and not keep it. Don't let your own words lead you into sin". [6]
A distinction is made between simple promises and oaths or vows. An oath is a promise invoking God as a witness. [7] A vow is a solemn form of a promise typically made to commit oneself to a moral good with God as witness, and binds oneself to its fulfillment over time. [8]
Some groups of Christians, for example the Religious Society of Friends and the Anabaptist Churches (such as the Mennonites), object to the taking of both oaths and affirmations, basing their objections upon a commandment given in the Sermon on the Mount, and regard all promises to be witnessed by God.
In Surah An-Nahl, God forbids Muslims to break their promises after they have confirmed them. All promises are regarded as having Allah as their witness and guarantor. In the hadith, Muhammad states that a Muslim who made a promise and then saw a better thing to do, should do the better thing and then make an act of atonement for breaking the promise.[ citation needed ] It is forbidden to break an oath in Islam. However, when someone does break an oath, they are required to ask for forgiveness and make up for the sin by feeding/clothing 10 poor people or freeing a slave (which is nearly impossible today), or, if unable to do these, to fast for three days. One of the four types of promises that are punished quickly is when you want to harm a relationship when the other person wants to keep it. [9]
Philosophers have tried to establish rules for promises. Immanuel Kant suggested promises should always be kept, while some consequentialists argue that promises should be broken whenever doing so would yield benefits. In How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time , Iain King tried to reconcile these positions, suggesting that promises should be kept 'unless they are worth less to others than a new option is to you,' [10] and that this requires a relevant, unforeseen and reasonably unforeseeable change in the situation more important than the promise itself arising after the promise is made. [11]
As opposed to Kant, some Rossian pluralists believe that morality with regards to right and wrong cannot be formalized in writing. [12] In certain circumstances, breaking one's promise may be more beneficial than the cost of keeping it.[ citation needed ] These moral principles need guidance and good judgments to maximize the benefits of people involved.
In democracy promises are made to offer assurance, especially during election. Political tactic to offer promise that would guarantee a better future to sway voters. In Western democracies, election promises are more often fulfilled than not.[ citation needed ] However, certain promises are famously broken.
The "promise", in sociology and society, as discussed by C. Wright Mills [13] and others is the ideological impression or commitment our society makes to us, and the commitment we make to our society in return for prosperity. The best or most popular example of this is the American Dream.
Promises are compared with threats by Verbrugge, Dieussaert, Schaeken and William. [14] When a threat or promise is conditional, it tends to receive biconditional interpretation. Also, both threats and promises are highly controlled by the speaker. The fundamental difference is the valence of the prospective action on the speaker's part. In the case of a promise it is generally positive while in the case of a threat it is negative. There is some evidence to suggest that threats are perceived simply as negative promises. [15] However, promises are often made with an intent on the speaker's part to convince a hearer to do something by holding out the prospect of a reward; threats by contrasts are often made with an intent to influence a hearer's behavior by holding out the prospect of a punishment. In addition, certain characteristics of promises and threats, such as "magnitude" and "credibility", affect the probability that the target will gain compliance or failure. [16] Promises can fall under many different categories, however they will have two key components. The type of activity that the promises undertakes to do, and the content of the promise. Promises can give us both the security that something is being fully guaranteed and the stress that you are guaranteeing something that cannot be verified at that given moment. This can create both a positive and a negative effect on our minds. [17]
In ethics and the social sciences, value theory involves various approaches that examine how, why, and to what degree humans value things and whether the object or subject of valuing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. Within philosophy, it is also known as ethics or axiology.
A vow is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise, a promise solemn rather than casual.
Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a particular claim. Legal doctrines of estoppel are based in both common law and equity. It is also a concept in international law.
Consideration is the central concept in the common law of contracts and is required, in most cases, for a contract to be enforceable. Consideration is the price one pays for another's promise. It can take a number of forms: money, property, a promise, the doing of an act, or even refraining from doing an act. In broad terms, if one agrees to do something he was not otherwise legally obligated to do, it may be said that he has given consideration. For example, Jack agrees to sell his car to Jill for $100. Jill's payment of $100 is the consideration for Jack's promise to give Jill the car, and Jack's promise to give Jill the car is consideration for Jill's payment of $100.
Traditionally an oath is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead. Nowadays, even when there is no notion of sanctity involved, certain promises said out loud in ceremonial or juridical purpose are referred to as oaths. "To swear" is a verb used to describe the taking of an oath, to making a solemn vow.
Acceptance in human psychology is a person's assent to the reality of a situation, recognizing a process or condition without attempting to change it or protest it. The concept is close in meaning to acquiescence, derived from the Latin acquiēscere.
Quantum meruit is a Latin phrase meaning "what one has earned". In the context of contract law, it means something along the lines of "reasonable value of services".
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.
A third-party beneficiary, in the law of contracts, is a person who may have the right to sue on a contract, despite not having originally been an active party to the contract. This right, known as a ius quaesitum tertio, arises when the third party is the intended beneficiary of the contract, as opposed to a mere incidental beneficiary. It vests when the third party relies on or assents to the relationship, and gives the third party the right to sue either the promisor or the promisee of the contract, depending on the circumstances under which the relationship was created.
The Oath of Allegiance is a promise to be loyal to the British monarch, and his or her heirs and successors, sworn by certain public servants in the United Kingdom, and also by newly naturalised subjects in citizenship ceremonies. The current standard wording of the oath of allegiance is set out in the Promissory Oaths Act 1868.
Offer and acceptance are generally recognised as essential requirements for the formation of a contract, and analysis of their operation is a traditional approach in contract law. The offer and acceptance formula, developed in the 19th century, identifies a moment of formation when the parties are of one mind. This classical approach to contract formation has been modified by developments in the law of estoppel, misleading conduct, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and power of acceptance.
The right of person A to obligate person B to refrain from (causal) physical interference with, in particular a purely interfering negligence tort against, some object or thing is called a negative right. So a negative right is a claim right. If a claim right is not a negative right, it is called a positive right. To every claim right of person A to obligate person B corresponds the obligation on B, so the obligation corresponding to a negative right is called a 'negative obligation' and an obligation corresponding to positive right a 'positive obligation'. Examples of negative rights are natural right to self-ownership and property like land and territorial sovereignty of the state. An examples of a positive right is the right of the government to enforce the law on all inhabitants or a sale contract to receive a product. Note that defamation, free-market competition or refusal to offer a delivery service are not forms of damage that are tortuously necessarily caused by an act of pure interference. Bans on these actions are positive obligations and the right to inviolability of these actions are positive rights.
Sworn testimony is evidence given by a witness who has made a commitment to tell the truth. If the witness is later found to have lied whilst bound by the commitment, they can often be charged with the crime of perjury. The types of commitment can include oaths, affirmations and promises which are explained in more detail below. The exact wording of the commitments vary from country to country.
Consideration is a concept of English common law and is a necessity for simple contracts but not for special contracts. The concept has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions.
When creating a contract, a negotiator is not only doing so to reach an agreement between two or more parties, but to create an agreement that is durable; whereby parties of the contract are legally bound and committed to its promises. A legally binding contract is defined as an exchange of promises or an agreement between parties that the law will enforce, and there is an underlying presumption for commercial agreements that parties intend to be legally bound.
English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth, from membership in the European Union, continuing membership in Unidroit, and to a lesser extent the United States. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. A contract is a voluntary obligation, contrasting to the duty to not violate others rights in tort or unjust enrichment. English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court, so long as they comply with statutory and human rights.
A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more mutually agreeing parties. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to transfer any of those at a future date. In the event of a breach of contract, the injured party may seek judicial remedies such as damages or rescission. A binding agreement between actors in international law is known as a treaty.
The Indian Contract Act, 1872 prescribes the law relating to contracts in India and is the key act regulating Indian contract law. The Act is based on the principles of English Common Law. It is applicable to all the states of India. It determines the circumstances in which promises made by the parties to a contract shall be legally binding. Under Section 2(h), the Indian Contract Act defines a contract as an agreement enforceable by Law.
Besa is an Albanian cultural precept, usually translated as "faith" or "oath", that means "to keep the promise" and "word of honor". The concept is synonymous, and, according to Hofmann, Treimer and Schmidt, etymologically related, to the Classical Latin word fides, which in Late Ancient and Medieval Latin took on the Christian meaning of "faith, (religious) belief" today extant in Romance languages, but which originally had an ethical/juridical scope. The Albanian adjective besnik, derived from besa, means "faithful", "trustworthy", i.e. one who keeps his word. Besnik for men and Besa for women continue to be very popular names among Albanians. Besa is of prime importance in the Albanian traditional customary law (Kanun) as a cornerstone of personal and social conduct.
In Judaism, a neder is a kind of vow or oath. The neder may consist of performing some act in the future or abstaining from a particular type of activity of the person's choice. The concept of the neder and the Jewish law related to it, is described at the beginning of the parashah of Matot.
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