ABSTRACT
This chapter deals mainly with minors, but also looks briefly at some of the other categories of incapacity. A minor is any person under the age of majority. At common law, the age of majority was 21 years. The common law is supplemented in the case of interpretation of the written law in some countries of the region by the Interpretation Act. Within the region, legislation provides for persons of unsound mind to be made the subject of a 'reception' or similar order and to be detained in a mental hospital. The Minors Contracts Act 1987 may apply in Tonga, as an Act of general application, although there are no reported cases on point. A contract with a firm operating as a partnership, on the other hand, must be made with the individual partners, as the partnership has no separate legal entity and cannot contract in its own right.
