51 Examples

For example, under the DCFR it is not the contract which is performed. A contract is concluded; obligations are performed. Similarly, a contract is not terminated. It is the contractual relationship, or particular rights and obligations arising from it, which will be terminated. The new focus on rights and obligations in Book III also made possible the consistent use of ‘creditor’ and ‘debtor’ rather than terms like ‘aggrieved party’ and ‘other party’, which were commonly used in the PECL. The decision to use obligation consistently as the counterpart of a right to performance also meant some drafting changes. The PECL sometimes used ‘duty’ in this sense and sometimes ‘obligation’. The need for clear concepts and terminology also meant more frequent references than in the PECL to juridical acts other than contracts. A juridical act is defined in II. — 1:101 as a statement or agreement which is intended to have legal effect as such. All legal systems have to deal with various types of juridical act other than contracts, but not all use such a term and not all have generalised rules. Examples of such juridical acts might be offers, acceptances, notices of termination, authorisations, guarantees, acts of assignment, unilateral promises and so on. The PECL dealt with these by an article (1:107) which applied the Principles to them 'with appropriate modifications'. However, this technique is a short-cut which should only be used with great care and only when the appropriate modifications will be slight and fairly obvious. In this instance what modifications would be appropriate was not always apparent. It was therefore decided, as far back as 2004, to deal separately with other juridical acts. Some commentators on the Interim Outline Edition have ascribed a significance to this modest functional decision which it certainly did not have in the eyes of the drafters.