WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF VALIDITY OF THE CONTRACT? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The elements of validity of the contract are legal capacity, absence of defects in consent, lawful object and lawful cause of the contract.

A contract is a legal agreement that is concluded between two or more parties, the fulfillment of which is mandatory. This document declares an agreement of wills between the actors involved.

Contracts may involve agreements on family or property rights, such as sales contracts, or contracts for labor relations.

The legislation of each country establishes a series of requirements that validate the content of the contracts. However, roughly the elements of validity of a contract are very similar.

What elements make a contract valid?

Four basic factors are recognized worldwide that, regardless of local legislation, allow distinguishing the validity of a contract.

Legal capacity

It refers to the legal aptitude that an individual has to be the subject of rights and obligations. In other words, it is understood as the ability to enjoy and exercise, from the point of view of the law.

This aspect may vary in each country, especially with regard to prosecuted persons, foreigners with restricted capacity (special cases), charities, etc.

Minors are not capable of exercise, as well as people of legal age with some type of intellectual, motor, sensory or emotional disability.

This group of people must have a legal representative who ensures the exercise of their rights.

Absence of defects in consent

For a contract to be valid, there must be no defects in consent. This type of inconvenience is given by errors of nullity, violence or fraud.

Nullity errors are misconceptions that stand out in light of the contract. In this sense, the terms of the agreement are defined according to misunderstandings between the parties, or wrong definitions in the contract.

Violence is also considered a vice of consent. Whenever the free will of the parties is constrained by the use of physical force or threats, the contract loses validity.

For its part, fraud is any fraudulent means used with the intention of deliberately damaging, defrauding, confusing or deceiving the counterpart at the time of signing a contract.

The latter consists of an act of bad faith with premeditation, and is also considered a vice in consent.

Lawful object

The object of a contract is the material good on which the contract is made. For example: if it is a contract for the sale of a vehicle, the object of the contract will be the car in question.

The legal act deals with the object of the contract, and the origin of this object must be lawful, that is, it must be within the framework of the law.

Lawful cause

It is understood as the purpose or the purpose of the contract. For example: in an employment contract, the cause of the contract lies in defining the terms of the relationship between the worker and the employer.

Analogous to the previous case, the cause of the contract must be consistent with the legal restrictions. Otherwise, the contract will not be valid.

References

1. Civil Code. Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela. Caracas, Venezuela, July 26, 1982.
2. Díaz, V. (2014). Elements of existence and validity of contracts. Santiago de Chile, Chile. Recovered from: repositorio.uchile.cl
3. Elements of validity of contracts (2013). Recovered from: prezi.com
4. Essential requirements for the validity of contracts (1st part). (2015). Recovered from: judgmentcivil.com
5. Simental, V. (2008). Current approach to the general theory of the contract. National Autonomous University of Mexico. Mexico DF, Mexico. Recovered from: eumed.net
6. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2017). Contract. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org