Obligatio
A legal bond by which one is bound to the performance of some act at the behest and for the
benefit of another person (
Inst. iii. 13). It may, however, be of a negative character, in which
case the persons bound must abstain from some specified act. Obligationes to be binding must
satisfy their creditors:
1.
they must be lawful in nature and form;
2.
they must have a money value to the person in whose favour they are assumed; and
3.
they must be definite and specific. See Savigny's
Obligationenrecht (2
vols. 1851-53).