5 Performance, Breach and Extinction of Obligations

For completeness — and because examiners reward the lifecycle view:Modes of discharge of obligations (the Roman modi solvendi map):1. Performance (solutio) — the performance due; the chain is severed (a sale completed by delivery and payment);2. Set-off (compensatio) — mutual obligations between the same parties cancel to the lesser amount;3. Release/remission — the obligee forgives the bond (a formal discharge; note deed-of- discharge practice);4. Novation — the parties substitute a new obligation or new obligor for the old (the debt to A replaced by a debt to B);5. Merger (confusio) — obligor and obligee become one person (creditor inherits from debtor);6. Impossibility/frustration — the thing perishes or the performance becomes impossible without fault (sale of specific goods already destroyed);7. Prescription/limitation — the claim's enforceability is extinguished by lapse of the limitation period;8. Death where personal (delictual reputation duties), otherwise transmission to heirs.Breach converts obligation into liability (Unit 4): the obligee's remedies — damages (compensation), specific performance, injunction, cancellation — correspond to whether the obligation was to pay, do, give or forbear.