Author(s): Wim Decock
Publisher: Koninklijke Brill NV
Year: 2013
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Notes on the Text and Its Modes of Reference
Chapter One Method and Direction
1.1 Research hypothesis
1.2 Research design
1.3 Selection of sources
Chapter Two Theologians and Contract Law: Contextual Elements
2.1 Theologians and the ius commune
2.1.1 Law and theology?
2.1.2 The ius commune in Spain and its theological status
2.1.3 A syncretic legal culture
2.2 From manuals for confessors to systematic legal treatises
2.2.1 Symbiosis versus separation of law and morality
2.2.2 The Dominicans at Salamanca and the renewal of the Catholic tradition
2.2.3 The Jesuits and the reinforcement of the symbiosis
2.3 Moral jurisprudence and the court of conscience
2.3.1 A court for the soul and the truth
2.3.2 A minimalistic concept of morality
2.3.3 A plurality of legal sources
2.4 Enforcement mechanisms
2.4.1 Norms and force
2.4.2 Evangelical denunciation and the power of the keys
2.4.3 Secret compensation
Chapter Three Toward a General Law of Contract
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The long roads to consensualism
3.2.1 Haunted by the Romans
3.2.1.1 The civilian tradition
3.2.1.2 Classical convulsions
3.2.2 The refreshing spirit of canon law
3.2.2.1 Pacta quantumcumque nuda servanda
3.2.2.2 Causa
3.2.3 A new world: the victory of consensualism
3.2.3.1 Natural law
3.2.3.2 In utroque foro hodie ex pacto nudo habebimus ius agendi
3.3 The making of contractual obligation
3.3.1 Liberty and the will
3.3.1.1 Contrahentibus libertas restituta
3.3.1.2 Voluntas libertatem possidens
3.3.1.3 De contractibus in genere
3.3.2 All accepted promises are binding
3.3.2.1 First requirement: animus obligandi
3.3.2.2 Second requirement: promissio externa
3.3.2.3 Third requirement: promissio acceptata
3.3.3 The interpretation of contractual obligation
3.3.3.1 Fictitious and doubtful promises
3.3.3.2 Legally vs morally binding promises
3.3.3.3 Implied conditions and changed circumstances
3.4 Grotius
3.5 Conclusion
Chapter Four Natural Limitations on ‘Freedom of Contract’
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Duress (metus)
4.2.1 Foundations
4.2.1.1 Romano-canon law
4.2.1.2 The Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition
4.2.1.3 Soto: the virtues of constancy and courage
4.2.1.4 Covarruvias at the confluence of scholasticism and humanism
4.2.1.5 Molina: duress makes contracts void ab initio
4.2.2 Tomás Sánchez’s doctrine of duress
4.2.2.1 Duress and the law of marriage
4.2.2.2 The constant man test of coercion
4.2.2.2.1 Promoting virtue, protecting the weak
4.2.2.2.2 The constant man, his relatives, and his friends
4.2.2.2.3 The constant man, his property, and his profits
4.2.2.3 Pressure and flattery
4.2.2.4 Reverential fear
4.2.2.5 Void vs voidable contracts
4.2.3 The Jesuit moral theologians and the casuistry of duress
4.2.3.1 Duress and general contract doctrine
4.2.3.2 Contract as a means of escaping a threat
4.2.3.3 The use and abuse of litigation rights
4.2.3.4 Minor fear
4.2.3.5 Void vs voidable contracts
4.2.4 A brief synthesis of the scholastic tradition on duress (Grotius)
4.3 Mistake (dolus/error)
4.3.1 Foundations
4.3.1.1 Romano-canon law
4.3.1.2 Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition
4.3.2 Nullity ipso facto and the bonae fidei / stricti iuris distinction
4.3.2.1 Is mistake a vice of the will?
4.3.2.2 A humanist scholastic canon lawyer on good faith vs strict law
4.3.2.3 Molina: mistake makes contracts void ab initio
4.3.2.4 Sánchez: delictual and criminal liability
4.3.2.5 A swansong to nullity ab initio
4.3.3 Voidability and the end of the bonae fidei / stricti iuris distinction
4.3.3.1 The format of Lessius’ revolution
4.3.3.2 General application of voidability
4.3.3.3 General application of the tacit condition
4.3.3.4 Voidability without tacit condition
4.3.4 The impossible synthesis of the scholastic traditionon mistake (Grotius)
4.4 Conclusion
Chapter Five Formal Limitations on ‘Freedom of Contract’
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The post-glossators and insolemn testaments
5.2.1 Natural equity
5.2.2 Substantial formalities
5.3 The decretalists and the consensualist turn
5.3.1 Contracts, elections, and last wills
5.3.2 Formalities against fraud and deceit
5.3.3 A general principle of consensualism
5.3.4 Teleological interpretations of positive law
5.3.5 The triumph of equity and conscience
5.4 Theologians for formalism I: the absolutistic version
5.4.1 Property, contracts, and restitution
5.4.2 Individual property and the State
5.4.3 The moral enforcement of State regulation
5.4.4 Against teleological interpretation
5.4.5 The politics of conscience
5.5 Theologians for formalism II: the diplomatic version
5.5.1 Property, exchange, and the common good
5.5.2 Technical nuances and academic courtesy
5.5.3 The absoluteness of positive law
5.5.4 The equation of legal and spiritual security
5.5.5 Contracts and last wills vs marriage and election
5.6 Early modern canon law and the imperatives of the State
5.6.1 Contracts for third-party beneficiaries
5.6.2 Moral vs legal natural debt
5.6.3 Resisting, assisting or tolerating natural obligation
5.6.4 The triumph of Spanish statutory law
5.6.5 Defective testaments: naturally binding, but not in conscience
5.7 Theologians and formalism III: the critical approach
5.7.1 The disjunction of the debates on testaments and contracts
5.7.2 Moderate formalism in contracts and the resurgence of equity
5.7.3 Restoring the primacy of the will in testaments
5.7.4 Formalities, the political contract, and leges irritatoriae
5.7.5 Lessius against Covarruvias
5.8 Conclusion
Chapter Six Substantive Limitations on ‘Freedom of Contract’
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Sex, theologians and contract law
6.2.1 Immoral object vs immoral motive
6.2.2 Roman canon law and the nullity of immoral contracts
6.3 Prostitution and the law of restitution
6.3.1 Illicit acquisition vs acquisition by virtue of an illicit cause
6.3.2 Leasing a right of use over your body
6.3.3 The Saint, the sinner, and the Digest
6.3.4 Sex for sale
6.3.5 The domina’s (quasi-)contractual claim to a wage
6.4 Moralists, realists, theologians and canonists
6.4.1 The rigorist approach
6.4.1.1 Sex outside wedlock is mortal sin
6.4.1.2 Medina I: radical Augustinianism
6.4.1.3 Medina II: waiting for the liberal fornicator
6.4.2 The pragmatic approach
6.4.2.1 Soto on the moral limits to ‘freedom of contract’
6.4.2.2 The market price for sex
6.4.2.3 Theological psychoanalysis
6.4.3 Thomistic canon law
6.4.3.1 The prostitute’s right to remuneration
6.4.3.2 Unjust enrichment and secret prostitutes
6.4.4 A moralizing and experienced teacher
6.4.4.1 Envy in the canon law faculty
6.4.4.2 Moral worthlessness and lack of economic and juridical force
6.4.4.3 College freshmen and the plea against tolerating prostitution
6.5 The Jesuits and a general doctrine of immoral promises
6.5.1 The market price for immoral services
6.5.2 Immoral and impossible conditions
6.5.3 Immoral promises invalid as a matter of natural law
6.5.4 Immoral promises invalid as a matter of positive law
6.5.5 The politics of good morals (boni mores)
6.5.6 Morality and the final motivating cause
6.5.7 Sex as a luxury good and the stylus aulae
6.6 Grotius enjoying scholastic wisdom
6.7 Concluding observations on sex and the early modern theologians
6.7.1 Classification and analysis of the opinions
6.7.2 Suárez and the protection of ‘freedom of contract’
6.7.3 Invalidity versus immorality and illegality
6.7.4 Contract law and unjust enrichment
Chapter Seven Fairness in Exchange
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The point of gravity: just pricing
7.2.1 Justitia commutativa
7.2.1.1 Enriching contracts
7.2.1.2 Restitution
7.2.2 Justum pretium
7.2.2.1 Demystifying the just price
7.2.2.2 Utility and necessity
7.2.3 Laesio enormis
7.2.3.1 C. 4,44,2 and the ius commune
7.2.3.2 The Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition
7.3 Contractual fairness in early modern scholasticism I
7.3.1 A clash between legal and moral principles
7.3.1.1 Roman maxims vs Christian morals
7.3.1.2 Just pricing vs gift-making
7.3.2 A clash between secular and spiritual jurisdictions
7.3.2.1 Enforcing contractual equilibrium
7.3.2.2 Competing for normative power
7.4 Lesion for dummies: the systematic approach
7.4.1 The external court
7.4.1.1 The renunciability of C. 4,44,2
7.4.1.2 Gifts are not presumed
7.4.2 The internal court
7.4.2.1 Reason of sin vs reason of state
7.4.2.2 Unjust enrichment
7.4.2.3 Gifts are not presumed
7.5 Lesion for the advanced: the critical approach
7.5.1 Socio-political foundations
7.5.1.1 Individual property and rights
7.5.1.2 The do-no-harm principle
7.5.2 A humanist critique
7.5.2.1 Novum ius
7.5.2.2 The myth of dolus re ipsa
7.5.2.3 Circumscribing invicem se circumvenire
7.5.3 Philology meets equity
7.5.3.1 The non-renunciability of C. 4,44,2
7.5.3.2 A humanist jurist more Catholic than the theologians?
7.6 Contractual fairness in early modern scholasticism II
7.6.1 Theory: the moral menace of Roman law
7.6.2 Practice: playing the market game
7.7 Grotius and the legacy of fairness in exchange
7.8 Conclusion
Chapter Eight Theologians and Contract Law: Common Themes
8.1 Between freedom and justice
8.2 Between Church and State
8.3 Between medieval and modern
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Terms
