2 Concept of Obligation

Definition to give in the examination: an obligation is a legal relationship in which one party is under a duty to perform in favour of another, the breach of which gives the latter a remedy. Its elements:1. Parties — obligor (debtor of the performance) and obligee (creditor of the performance);2. 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);3. 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);4. Sanction — the bond is kept taut by courts: damages, specific performance, injunction.Obligation, duty, liability — the triangle to master:• Duty is the broader term for what law requires; obligation is the relational form of duty — a duty owed to a determinate obligee (contract, delict) rather than to the world.• Liability is the post-breach condition: the obligor who fails to perform becomes liable to the remedy. Obligation is the state of being bound ex ante; liability is the exposure to consequences ex post.• Example in one sentence: Kanchha's obligation to deliver a promised buffalo to Sita becomes, on non-delivery, a liability to compensate her.Hart's…