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Nature and Development of Consensual Contracts

In modern law, we think of all contracts as being based on the parties' consent to be bound. In Roman law, however, the consensual contracts were a distinct group within the wider law of contracts.

There were four types of consensual contract — sale, hire, mandate and partnership — and they were united by hav­ing no formal requirements for their constitution beyond the agreement of the parties (although, as we shall see,Justinian modified this principle in one case, sale contracts constituted in writing). Consensual contracts therefore had two great advantages: they could be made informally, and they could be made at a distance, by parties communicating by letter or messenger.[2132] The consensual con­tracts were all bilateral, in that they imposed obligations on both parties.[2133] All of them were also bonae fidei contracts, as the formulae for their enforcement directed the judge to take into account the requirements of good faith.

As with other categories of contract, the contents of this chapter should be considered alongside the general discussion of contracts in Chapter 17.

B.

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Source: Anderson Craig. Roman Law for Scots Law Students. Edinburgh University Press,2021. — 496 p.. 2021
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