Transacciones (DCH) (Settlement Agreements (DCH))

No. 2021-03

In general terms, early modern canon lawyers conceived of transactio as the agreement by which parties settle their conflict out-of-court by mutually “giving and taking” something with regards to the subject of a dispute or a lawsuit the outcome of which is uncertain. For example, if parties disagreed about the amount and even the justified nature of a damage claim, they could decide to reach a mutual agreement whereby the injured party accepted a certain but potentially lower compensation than she could perhaps have obtained in court, while the defendant accepted to pay damages immediately rather than speculating on a dismissal or a lower sentence by the court. The technical understanding of the transactio-contract by early modern canon lawyers in the Spanish world did not differ significantly from that of canonists, or, for that matter, civilian lawyers elsewhere or in previous times.

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