Civil Law: Persons, Obligations, Property and Remedies
Civil law governs relationships between private persons - persons, things, obligations, family and succession. The exam tests whether you can classify a relationship, identify the governing source, and apply the correct remedy, rather than recite definitions.
Sources and hierarchy
- A general civil code applies unless a special statute prevails; custom and general principles fill gaps; settled supreme-court jurisprudence is binding in practice.
- Mandatory rules (capacity, family, succession) cannot be displaced by agreement; default rules can.
Persons and capacity
- Legal personality begins at birth, with protection of the conceived child where succession is at stake. Minors and persons under guardianship lack full transactional capacity; the sanction is nullity or voidability depending on the system.
Obligations
- A contract requires capacity, consent free of defects (error, fraud, duress, undue influence), a certain and lawful object, and a permitted cause. A missing element makes the act void; a vitiated consent makes it voidable.
- Delict requires a wrongful act, fault, damage and causal link. Concurrent contractual and delictual claims are common; check limitation periods separately.
Remedies
- Specific performance for obligations to transfer or do; damages for loss, subject to causation and foreseeability; rescission restores the parties to their pre-contractual positions.
Worked example
A sells B a painting described as 'by X'. It is a copy; A honestly believed it genuine. Reasoning: object and cause are sound, but B's consent was vitiated by error as to a substantial quality, induced by A's description. The contract is voidable at B's instance: rescission plus restitution of the price, and damages if A was at fault in the description. Had A known the truth, fraud would also found damages.
Traps
- Labelling as void what is merely voidable.
- Confusing ownership with possession, and ignoring registration for immovables.
- Claiming damages without proving loss and causation.