ABSTRACT
The law of obligations, together with the law of property, makes up what Gaius referred to as the law of things. Modern civil lawyers also regard obligations as a kind of thing in that obligations have a monetary value. The law of obligations in the early Roman republic displays many of the features mentioned in this chapter, particularly with regard to theft. In many ways, the arrival of the Germanic tribes within the borders of the western Roman empire marked a return to the level of the XII Tables in terms of the law of obligations in western Europe. Canon law stressed that provided certain requisites were present within an agreement, then it was a valid contract which could give rise to legal obligations. Contractual obligations in modern civil law are those which are founded upon the consent of the parties and, if that consent is vitiated in some way, the contract is a nullity.
