Obligate—obligatio—obligation

"Nam fundi et aedes obligatac sunt ob Amoris praedium" said Astaphium andlla in Plautus¹ play Truculentus (at 214), thus providing us with the oldest source in which the word "obligare" is used.

The substantive "obligatio" can be traced back to Cicero.¹ As to the literal meaning of the term, its root "lig-" indicates that something or somebody is bound;² just as we are all "bound back" (to God) by virtue of our "re-ligio". This idea is still clearly reflected in the famous definition which Justinian advanced in his Institutes, where he introduced the subject of the law of obligations: "obligatio est iuris vinculum, quo necessitate adstringimur alicuius solvendae rei secundum nostrae civitatis iura."³ Today the technical term "obligation" is widely used to refer to a two-ended relationship which appears from the one end as a personal right to claim and from the other as a duty to render performance. The party "bound" to make performance is called the debtor (debitor, from debere), whilst at the other end of the obligation we find the "creditor", who has put his confidence in this specific debtor and relies (credere) on the debtor's will and capacity to perform. As far as the Roman terminology is concerned, "obligatio" could denote the vinculum iuris looked at from either end; it could refer to the creditor's right as well as to the debtor's duty. This obviously makes it somewhat difficult to render the Roman idea in English, for the English term "obligation" is merely oriented towards the person bound, not towards the person entitled. With the words "my obligations" I can refer only to my duties, not to my rights.⁴

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More on the topic Obligate—obligatio—obligation:

1. The term obligation (obligatio) denoted the legal relationship that existed between two persons, in terms of which one person was obliged towards the other to carry out a certain duty or duties.
2. The term obligation (obligatio) denoted the legal relationship that existed between two persons, in terms of which one person was obliged towards the other to carry out a certain duty or duties.
3. Obligation
4. Definition: What is an Obligation?
5. An obligation could be terminated in a number of ways.
6. 1. Impossibilium mil la obligatio est
7. CHAPTER 1 Obligatio
8. CITIZENSHIP AND INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATION: GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND RELATIONAL FEMINISM
9. Impossibilium nulla obligatio est under the (earlier) ius commune
10. CHAPTER XXIX. EFFECT AFTER MANUMISSION OF EVENTS DURING SLAVERY. NATURALIS OBLIGATIO.
11. Roman law recognized two principal forms of security for the performance of an obligation: personal security or suretyship, whereby a person undertook to be personally liable as surety to the creditor for the discharge of the debt[541];
12. The concept, sketched in the preceding chapter, of the obligatio as being a strictly personal bond between the two parties who had concluded the contract found highly characteristic expression in the fact that Roman law did not recognize contracts in favour of third parties, (direct) agency and the cession of rights.
13. Table of Contents
14. Delictual liability: from revenge to compensation