Study Unit 1 - General Concepts

Conscious meeting of minds (consensus ad idem) between two or more persons. An agreement creating obligations is known as a contract.

The capacity to perform valid juristic acts.

The capacity to appear in court as a party to a suit.

An agreement entered into with the intention of creating an obligation or obligations.

A person who manages another person's affairs on behalf of the latter because he or she is not capable of doing so.

Acts on behalf of an unborn child.

Acts on behalf of another only for the purposes of litigation.

Administer's another's property.

The amount which a person can claim as compensation for actual patrimonial loss he or she has suffered as a consequence of delict, or breach of contract.

A delict is a wrongful and intentional or negligent act as a consequence of which another suffers a loss.

The infringement of a right or the non-fulfilment of a legal duty.

Unjustified enrichment occurs when one person obtains a patrimonial benefit at the expense of another without a valid legal ground existing for the transfer of the benefit.

The doctrine that provides that if someone culpably represents that a certain state of affairs exists, and another person acts to his or her own disadvantage in consequence of such a representation, the deceiver is precluded from raising the true facts.

A defence which a party to a reciprocal contract may, under certain circumstances, employ against the other party when the latter sues the former on the contract and the latter himself or herself has not performed or tendered performance.

A human act to which the law attaches at least some of the consequences desired by the party or parties performing the act.

Void ab initio and devoid of all legal consequences. The position is simply as if the juristic act had never taken place.

Valid, and has all the usual legal consequences until it is nullified or set aside (e.g. by a party to the contract, or a third party).

Determines how and on whom a person's estate devolves when he or she dies without a valid will.

The capacity to have rights and duties.

A fact to which the law attaches consequences.

Anything in respect of which a legal subject may have rights, duties and capacities.

The attribute of having rights, duties and capacities in the eyes of the law. Legal personality is the capacity of being a legal subject.

A person or entity that can have rights, duties and capacities. A legal subject is a member of the legal community to whom the law applies and for whose benefit the law exists.

A person is legally liable if a performance which is due as a result of inter alia a contract or delict can be legally enforced against him or her.

Indicates whether a person is older or younger than 18 years.

Whether or not a person is legally regarded as being capable of conducting his or her own affairs.

A child who is born of parents who are legally married to each other at the time of the child's conception or birth or at any intervening time. Marriage includes civil, customary and religious marriages as well as civil unions.

A child who is born of parents who are not parties to a valid marriage or civil uinion with each other at the time of the child's conception or birth or any other intervening time.

The administering of another's affairs to his or her advantage, but without his or her knowledge.

A juristic bond in terms of which one person has a right to a performance and another person has a duty to render performance. A civil obligation is legally enforceable while a natural obligation is unenforceable.

Human conduct which may consist of either doing or not doing something. An obligation consists of a duty to render performance.

An assumption made by the law on the basis of the available facts.

A void marriage in which one or both of the parties to the marriage are bona fide unaware of the defect invalidating the marriage. As long as one or both of the parties remain bona fide unaware of the fact that the marriage is in fact invalid, the putative marriage has the legal consequences of a valid marriage.

That behaviour (tacit or express) whereby an error in a juristic act is rectified so that it acquires full validity retrospectively.

Compensation which a person may claim in regard to non-patrimonial loss that he has suffered as a result of a delict. The word "damages" is often used both in the sense of patrimonial and non-patrimonial loss. The distinction is nevertheless very important since different rules apply in regard to recovery of the two types of loss.

A legal remedy by means of which the former position is restored, that is the return of whatever has been performed in terms of a contract.