Unilateral gratuitous obligations (also known as unilateral voluntary obligations or gratuitous promises) are obligations undertaken voluntarily, when a person promises in definite terms to do something to benefit or favour another, and may therefore be under a legal obligation to keep their promise.
An example would be a promise to donate a sum of money to a
charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* Ch ...
. This is unilateral, as it imposes a legal obligation on only one person (the donor) and is gratuitous because the other party (the charity) does not do anything in order to be entitled to the money.
Unilateral gratuitous obligations are not a major feature of
commercial dealings, but sometimes arise in a business context, such as a promise to keep an offer open for a certain period of time, or a promise to renegotiate the terms of a
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 ...
.
In
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, gratuitous obligations are not generally regarded as enforceable if verbal or executed under hand. This is because, in
English law
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
Principal elements of English law
Although the common law has, historically, be ...
, there is a
doctrine of consideration
Consideration is an English common law concept within the law of contract, and is a necessity for simple contracts (but not for special contracts by deed). The concept of consideration has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions, inclu ...
which requires that both parties must be under an obligation to give something of value before either will be legally bound to an obligation. Gratuitous obligations will only be enforced by the courts if they are constituted by
deed
In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unilateral Gratuitous Obligations
Social ethics