ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF A CIVIL CONTRACT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the development of the concept of a civil law contract.
Although the doctrine of a civil contract has a long history of development, it is characterized by insufficient
elaboration. Interest in this issue in legal science is still preserved.
Initially, people received information about the institution of the treaty from myths, early religions,
and ethical attitudes. The civil law contract is the subject of research of both domestic and foreign civil
law and the general theory of law. Analysis of scientific, monographic, educational and methodological
literature, legislation shows how ambiguous the views of researchers on the definition of the concept of
“contract”. Particularly, the article emphasizes that a significant role in the development of contract law
belongs to Roman lawyers.
However, an analysis of the various types of contracts that existed in the Laws of 12 tables and in
the Justiniаn Code allows us to conclude that Roman lawyers did not develop a unified understanding
of the contract.
The Roman treaty system distinguished two types of treaties: contracts and pacts.
Studying and researching foreign civil legislation shows that the civil legislation of different states
also has different formulations of the meaning of the concept of “agreement”.
Key words: state, law, contract, legal system, legal institution, civil law, legal fact, legal relationship.