Book III: Different ways of acquiring property

A contract is an agreement between two or more persons to create, modify, transfer or extinguish obligations.

Everyone is free to contract or not to contract, to choose their co-contractor and to determine the content and form of the contract within the limits set by law. Freedom of contract does not permit derogation from rules of interest to public policy.

Legally formed contracts take the place of law for those who have made them.

Contracts must be negotiated, formed and performed in good faith. This provision is of public order.

Contracts, whether or not they have a proper name, are subject to general rules, which are the subject of this subtitle. The rules particular to certain contracts are set out in the provisions specific to each contract. The general rules apply subject to these special rules.

A contract is synallagmatic when the contracting parties bind themselves reciprocally to each other. It is unilateral when one or more persons obligate themselves to one or more others without there being any reciprocal undertaking on their part.

A contract is onerous when each of the parties receives a benefit from the other in return for that which he provides. It is gratuitous when one of the parties provides the other with a benefit without expecting or receiving any consideration.

The contract is commutative when each of the parties undertakes to procure for the other a benefit which is regarded as equivalent to that which he receives. It is random when the parties agree to make the effects of the contract, in terms of the benefits and losses that will result, depend on an uncertain event.

A contract is consensual when it is formed by the mere exchange of consents whatever the mode of expression. A contract is solemn when its validity is subject to forms determined by law. A contract is real when its formation is subject to the delivery of a thing.