9.1 Meaning and Kinds of Obligation

A. Meaning of Obligation Duty, liability, obligation — the three words orbit each other in every jurisprudence course. Obligation is the jurists' term for the binding legal relation itself: the word descends from the Latin obligatio, from ob-ligare — to bind to, to tie fast. Roman lawyers pictured it as a literal chain: the debtor was bound to the creditor, and performance or satisfaction severed the chain. Modern law has humanised the picture but kept the idea. Definition to give in the examination: an obligation is a legal relationship in which one party (the obligor) is under a duty to perform in favour of another (the obligee), the breach of which gives the latter a remedy. Its elements: Parties — obligor (debtor of the performance) and obligee (creditor of the performance); Content — the performance: dare (give/transfer a right), facere (do/perform an act), praestare (provide/answer for, the Roman residual category), or non facere (forbear); Legal bond — the duty exists by operation of law, so its breach is a legal wrong remediable by action — this distinguishes obligations from moral, social or religious bonds (a son's duty of shraaddha rites is moral/religious unless law annexes consequences); Sanction — the bond is kept taut by courts: damages, specific performance, injunction. Obligation, duty, liability — the triangle to master: Duty is the…