The final part of the law of things is the law of obligations.

We shall see in Chapter 17 a more detailed discussion of what is meant by the term ‘obligation’, together with discussion of some basic ideas in the law of obligations. In simple terms, though, we are concerned with the situation where someone is personally bound to make some kind of performance to another.

Obligations can arise in various ways. Perhaps the most obvious is through a contract. The law of contracts is introduced in Chapter 17, and then different types of contract are considered in Chapters 18 to 21. Obligations may arise in other ways, however. The law of delicts is concerned with the obligation imposed on a wrongdoer to compensate the victim of his or her actions. The law of delicts is considered in Chapters 22 to 24. Finally, various further ways in which an obligation can be imposed are considered in Chapters 25 and 26.

It is sometimes quite a complex task to trace the influence of Roman law through to modern law in this area. Many of the ideas considered in this part of the book underwent quite extensive development and modification following the Reception of Roman law in the Middle Ages (see Chapter 4). As we shall see, though, there are numerous points on which Roman sources are of continuing relevance in modern law. The law of obligations is probably second only to prop­erty law in terms of how often the courts continue to make reference to Roman legal materials.