A legal transaction or transactional act (german: Rechtsgeschäft, literally ‘legal business’; lat, negotium juridicum), under German jurisprudence, is the main type of lawful legal act (also known as an act-in-the-law, act at law, or juridical act) ‘by which legal subjects can change the legal positions of themselves or other persons intentionally’.Jaap Hage, “What is a Legal Transaction?”, in ''Law as Institutional Normative Order'', eds. Maksymilian Del Mar & Zenon Bankowski (Edinburgh: Ashgate, 2013), 103. The concept is important in civil law jurisdictions based on or influenced by the German

law of obligations The law of obligations is one branch of private law under the civil law legal system and so-called "mixed" legal systems. It is the body of rules that organizes and regulates the rights and duties arising between individuals. The specific rights a ...

, like Albania, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, South Korea and Japan. It also makes its appearance in a few Napoleonic jurisdictions that have partially received German legal theory, like Italy, The Netherlands or Portugal. The concept is a product of German

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and was developed as an alternative to the French-based dualism between legal fact vs. legal act. German legal theory rejects the notion of the legal fact (''juristische Tatsache'', ''Rechtstatsache'', Latin ''factum iuridicum''); thus, there is only the legal act (''Rechtshandlung'', Latin ''actus iuridicus''), which is divided into lawful and unlawful legal acts. Of the three types of lawful acts (i.e. transactional, quasi-transactional, and ''de facto'' acts), the transactional act is the main category. A transactional act is any voluntary manifestation of intention that creates the legal effects that the actor(s) specifically intended to bring about. Transactional acts include most of the unilateral and multilateral acts that are contemplated by the law. The main types are: * ''Verpflichtungsgeschäft'' - constitutive transaction, i.e. any act that creates (or ‘constitutes’) an obligation ** examples:

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

gift A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation ...

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

(actual authority),

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

, etc. * ''Verfügungsgeschäft'' - dispositive transaction, i.e. any act that either transfers or extinguishes (or ‘disposes of’) an obligation ** examples: conveyance,

assignment Assignment, assign or The Assignment may refer to: * Homework * Sex assignment * The process of sending National Basketball Association players to its development league; see Computing * Assignment (computer science), a type of modification to ...

, delivery (of a movable),

encumbrance An encumbrance is a third party's right to, interest in, or legal liability on property that does not prohibit the property's owner from transferring title (but may diminish its value). Encumbrances can be classified in several ways. They may be f ...

, debt release or cancellation * ''Gestaltungsgeschäft'' - potestative transaction, i.e. any unilateral act that creates a new potestative right (''Gestaltungsrecht''), or modifies and/or abolishes an existing legal relationship ** examples:

rescission Rescission is the noun form of the verb "to rescind." It may refer to: * Rescission (contract law) * Rescission bill, a procedure to rescind previously appropriated funding in the United States * A synonym for repeal in parliamentary procedure * ...

will contest A will contest, in the law of property, is a formal objection raised against the validity of a will, based on the contention that the will does not reflect the actual intent of the testator (the party who made the will) or that the will is otherwis ...

, giving notice (of quitting a job), letting a

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

run out, abandonment (of property, etc.) A transactional act can be distinguished from the other lawful legal acts, i.e. the quasi-transactional act (''rechtsgeschäftsähnliche Handlung'') and the ''de facto'' act (''Realakt''). The quasi-transactional act, though voluntary and intended, brings about legal effects that are not necessarily intended or sought out. The most obvious examples are

quasi-contract A quasi-contract (or implied-in-law contract or constructive contract) is a fictional contract recognised by a court. The notion of a quasi-contract can be traced to Roman law and is still a concept used in some modern legal systems. Quasi Contra ...

s such as

unjust enrichment In laws of equity, unjust enrichment occurs when one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances that the law sees as unjust. Where an individual is unjustly enriched, the law imposes an obligation upon the recipient to make res ...

, ''

negotiorum gestio ''Negotiorum gestio'' (, Latin for "management of business") is a form of spontaneous voluntary agency in which an intervenor or intermeddler, the ''gestor'', acts on behalf and for the benefit of a principal (''dominus negotii''), but without the ...

'', and ''indebiti solutio'', as well as acknowledgments, depositions, and the carrying out of a fiduciary duty. A ''de facto'' act is involuntary and lacks any overt intentionality; instead it comes about by accident (i.e. ''

force majeure In contract law, (from Law French: 'overwhelming force', ) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such ...

'') or is construed from the circumstances (even when they contradict an actor's express will). Some examples of the latter include a

constructive trust A constructive trust is an equitable remedy imposed by a court to benefit a party that has been wrongfully deprived of its rights due to either a person obtaining or holding a legal property right which they should not possess due to unjust enri ...

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

estoppel Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from ...

, and

under

apparent authority In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Africa, apparent authority (also called "ostensible authority") relates to the doctrines of the law of agency. It is relevant particularly in corporate law and constitutional law ...

Notes

References

* Reinhard Bork. ''Allgemeiner Teil des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuchs'', 2nd edn. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006, pp 112–5. *

Werner Flume Werner Flume (12 September 1908 – 28 January 2009) was a German jurist and professor of Roman law, private law, tax law and a legal historian. He has significantly influenced the modern development of German private law and has been ...

. ''Allgemeiner Teil des Bürgerlichen Rechts'', vol. 2: ''Das Rechtsgeschäft''. Berlin: Springer, 1992. * Gerhard Lippe, Jörn Esemann, & Thomas Tänzer. “Lehre vom Rechtsgeschäft”, chap. 2 of ''Das Wissen für Bankkaufleute''. Wiesbaden: Gabler, 1998, pp. 19–76. Civil law legal terminology Civil law (legal system) Law of obligations {{Law-term-stub