The notion of an implied condition (natural law)

The natural lawyers adopted a slightly different point of departure. They argued that the obligations of the two parties to a mutual contract were dependent, in the sense of being conditional, upon each other.

"ln]am unius ejusdemque contractus capita singula alia aliis inesse videntur per modum conditionis, quasi exprcssum csset, haec ita faciam si et alter faciat quae promisit."¹"

This idea found its most mature expression in art. 1184 code civil: a resolutive condition is always implied in synallagmatic contracts to provide for the case where one of the parties does not fulfil his undertaking. However, the contract is not resolved by operation of law in this case, but at the choice of the party with regard to whom the undertaking has not been performed. This provision, inspired by Domat and Pothier,^{[4129] [4130] tied in nicely with the practice which the French courts had been following anyway;[4131] already since the days of Molinaeus one had felt to be both entitled and compelled "de se deporter, dans les tribunaux, de la rigeur de ces principes" (that is, the Roman rejection of a general right of rescission).[4132]}

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