Table Of ContentContracts for a Third-Party Benefi ciary
Legal History Library
VOLUME 1
Studies in the History of Private Law
Series Editors
C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, Maastricht University; Dirk Heirbaut, University of
Ghent; Matthew C. Mirow, Florida International University
Editorial Board
Hamilton Bryson, University of Richmond; Thomas P. Gallanis, University of
Minnesota; James Gordley, Tulane University; Richard Helmholz, University
of Chicago; Michael Hoefl ich, University of Kansas; Neil Jones, University of
Cambridge; Hector MacQueen, University of Edinburgh; Paul Oberhammer,
University of Zurich; Marko Petrak, University of Zagreb; Jacques du Plessis,
University of Stellenbosch; Mathias Reimann, University of Michigan; Jan M.
Smits, University of Tilburg; Alain Wijffels, Université Catholique de Louvain,
University of Leiden, CNRS; Reinhard Zimmermann, Max-Planck-Institut
für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg
VOLUME 1
Contracts for a
Third-Party Benefi ciary
A Historical and Comparative Account
Edited by
Jan Hallebeek
Harry Dondorp
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
Cover illustration: A miniature illustrating Digest title 25.1 in a Bolognese manuscript (end of
14th century). This depicts a court scene, where a woman and her daughter, assisted by a
jurist, are claiming restitution of a dowry, while the defendants, standing at the back, refuse
restitution until their expenses, previously incurred, are deducted. The plaintiffs are appealing
to the judge to decide in their favour. Restitution of a dowry, according to some texts in the
Corpus iuris (D. 24.3.45 and C. 5.14.7), was one of the few claims which could be brought by
a third-party benefi ciary. © Austrian National Library Vienna, Picture Archive.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Contracts for a third-party benefi ciary : a historical and comparative account / Edited by
Jan Hallebeek, Harry Dondorp.
p. cm. — (Legal history library ; 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-16974-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Contracts—Europe—History.
2. Third parties (Law)—Europe—History. I. Hallebeek, Jan, 1954– II. Dondorp, Harry.
KJC1764.C66 2008
346.02’2—dc22
2008027617
ISSN 1874-1793
ISBN 978 90 04 16974 6
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Jan Hallebeek
Introduction ................................................................................ 1
Chapter One Roman Law ....................................................... 7
1.1 Introduction ................................................................. 7
1.2 Justinian’s Institutes: alteri stipulari nemo potest ............... 8
1.3 Classical Roman law: alteri stipulari dari nemo potest ...... 9
1.4 Later developments ...................................................... 12
1.5 The stipulator has an interest himself ......................... 14
1.6 Mandatum alteri and pacts in favour of a third party ... 15
1.7 Per extraneam personam nihil adquiri posse .......................... 16
1.8 Acquisition of remedies through slaves and children
under paternal control and similar cases .................... 17
1.9 Exceptional cases where a third-party benefi ciary
has an action ................................................................ 18
1.10 Conclusions .................................................................. 19
Chapter Two Medieval Legal Scholarship .............................. 21
2.1 Alteri stipulari nemo potest; the medieval approach in
general .......................................................................... 21
2.2 The example of Canon law ........................................ 22
2.3 The example of Castile ............................................... 29
2.4 Developments in civilian legal scholarship ................. 34
2.5 Conclusions .................................................................. 44
Harry Dondorp
Chapter Three The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ... 47
3.1 Introduction ................................................................. 47
3.2 Infl uence of the Canon law of contract ..................... 49
3.3 Third-party rights: the Castilian alternative ............... 50
3.4 Natural law .................................................................. 54
3.5 Legal practice ............................................................... 58
3.6 ‘Ius hodiernum’ and legal scholarship ............................ 63
3.7 Conclusions .................................................................. 67
vi contents
Chapter Four The Nineteenth Century .................................. 69
4.1 Introduction ................................................................... 69
4.2 Alteri stipulari; the nineteenth century approach in
general ............................................................................ 70
4.3 Renewed infl uence of Roman law in Germany ........... 72
4.4 Renewed infl uence of Roman law in France ............... 74
4.5 Infl uence of indigenous legal practice in France
and Germany ................................................................. 79
4.6 Dogmatic explanations .................................................. 82
4.7 Life insurance and the stipulation in favour of a
third party ...................................................................... 84
4.8 From the contractual clause in the benefi t of a third
party to the modern third-party benefi t contract ......... 88
David Ibbetson
Chapter Five English Law before 1900 .................................. 93
5.1 Introduction ................................................................... 93
5.2 Formal contracts and third-party rights ........................ 98
5.3 Informal contracts and third-party rights ..................... 103
5.4 Property rights ............................................................... 109
5.5 Privity of contract in the nineteenth century ............... 111
Chapter Six English Law: Twentieth Century ....................... 115
6.1 Introduction ................................................................... 115
6.2 Compensatory damages and indirect enforcement ...... 117
6.3 Direct enforcement and commercial practice:
complex contracts .......................................................... 119
6.4 Direct enforcement: avoiding the effects of the
restriction ....................................................................... 125
6.5 Reform of the law ......................................................... 132
6.6 The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 ...... 134
6.7 Common law and Civil law .......................................... 136
contents vii
Hendrik Verhagen
Chapter Seven Contemporary Law ........................................ 137
7.1 Introduction ................................................................... 137
7.2 Towards a fully emancipated contract in favour of a
third party ...................................................................... 138
7.3 The intention to confer a right upon the third party ... 143
7.4 Acceptance, renunciation and confi rmation ................. 146
7.5 The identifi cation of the third party ............................ 152
7.6 Content of the stipulation for a third party ................. 153
7.7 The legal relationships between stipulator, promisor
and third party ............................................................... 155
7.8 Dogmatic explanations for acquisition of rights by
the third party ................................................................ 158
Bibliography ................................................................................ 161
The Authors of this Volume ...................................................... 165
Index of Names .......................................................................... 167
Index of Sources ......................................................................... 170
INTRODUCTION
Most of our present day systems of law are familiar with the idea that
third parties can derive rights in contract without them selves having
concluded the contract. This can be estab lished in various ways. Firstly,
one may become credi tor of the obli gation one did not enter into
through a cessi on of the former creditor’s right. Secondly, a princi pal
can becom e cred itor of the obligation as a result of the contract his
agent ente red into on his behalf. Thirdly, there is the con tract in favour
of a third party. This third party, not being a party to the contract,
acquires the right stipulated for him by the contracting parties. In some
systems of law (Germany, England) this right is derived directly from the
contract itself, in other systems of law (the Netherlands, South-Africa)
this right is acquired through an explicit acceptance by the third party.
Only the fi rst category mentioned here, i.e. the contract in favour of a
third party which directly confers a right to the third benefi ciary, will
in this volume be designated with the technical term ‘third-party ben-
efi ciary contract’. For the other systems of law, where the third party
acquires his right in a different way or not solely from the contract in
his favour, the term ‘contract in favour of a third party’ will be used.
In order to describe the historical developments until 1900 the term
stipulatio alteri will be used for all contracts where parties agree that
something be given or done to a third benefi ciary, irrespective of the
question whether or not a right is stipulated for the other.
The three legal concepts just mentioned, i.e. cession, agency and the
contract in favour of a third party, have in common that they clash
with the fundamental rules of law which historically were part of the
legal traditions on which our contemporary systems of law are built.
Roman law was characterized by various maxims and rules of law which
could be adopted as serious obstacles to stipulating a right for a third
party. These maxims were fi rmly rooted in the Institutes of Justinian
(482–565). It was considered impos si ble to sti pu late that so mething be
given or performed to anoth er person, or as the Roman maxim reads
alteri stipula ri nemo po test.1 Moreover, it was neither pos sible to acquire
1 Inst. 3.19.4 and 19; Ulp. D. 45.1.38.17.
