Civil law contract as a document

Abstract

Based on the analysis of current Ukrainian legislation, practice of its application, provisions of civil law doctrine and documentary studies, it has been identified the general features of civil law contracts as documents. The need to develop theoretical provisions on a contract as a document is caused by insufficient research of these issues in the science of civil law.

The definition of the features of a contract-document is based on the principle of “from the general to the special”: first, the constitutive features of documents as such are established, and then these features are extrapolated to contracts when the latter are considered as documents. An agreement, as well as any other document, is characterized by attributability, stability of material (tangible) form, structural integrity, semantic content, completeness of the message and functionality. The specific distinction of a contract as a document is most evident when considering the substantive information that this document records. Such information includes data on subjects of civil law who acquire legal roles of "parties to the contract" in the contractual process and are recognized in it by means of special identification techniques, as well as data on the type of bilateral or multilateral transaction performed by these parties. Establishing such information makes it possible to qualify the legal relationship that has arisen between the parties properly and determine an adequate legal regime for its regulation. Based on the features (properties) of a contract as a document discussed in the article, it has been formulated its definitional description: a contract-document is a written act whose main purpose is to record, preserve and transmit in time and space information about the agreement reached by two or more parties aimed at establishing, changing or terminating civil rights and obligations. The conclusions that have been drawn in this article can be used in the educational process and legal practice.