Obligation of contracts
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
impairing the obligation of contracts · natural obligation of contracts · obligation of a contract · obligation of contracts
in the texts
Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated
The constitutional principle that contracts, once formed under law, create obligations that legislatures may not impair.
A suspension of debts by replevy or any other laws, not only impairs contracts, by defeating the mutual risque, as to the fluctuation of money, voluntarily incurred by the contracting parties;
The obligation of a contract arises from the consent of the parties, entered into under the sanction of the existing laws;
Every suspension of the payment of debts by law is an actual sequestration, which almost invariably terminates in a partial confiscation for the benefit of the debtor.
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
The constitutional protection against State laws impairing the natural obligation of contracts, argued incompatible with slave codes.
Yet this constitutional right of all men to enter into all contracts that have a natural obligation, and to have those contracts recognized by law as valid, is a right plainly inconsistent with the idea that men can constitutionally be made slaves.
Yet, if slave laws were constitutional, they would effectually impair the obligation of all contracts entered into by those who are made slaves;
This provision, therefore, absolutely prohibits the passage of slave laws, because laws that make men slaves must necessarily impair the obligation of all their contracts.