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Civil Law

Explanation of Article 12

Explanation of Article 12

Articles (12) to (16) address the types of capacity, and capacity is the qualification of a person to acquire rights, bear obligations, and perform legal acts and transactions. There are two types:

  • The first type: Capacity of obligation, which is the qualification of a person to acquire rights. The default is that every person enjoys full capacity of obligation, which is established for a human being in all stages of life, even when they are a fetus in their mother's womb. However, their capacity is incomplete, as previously mentioned in the explanation of Article (3).

  • The second type: Capacity of performance, which is the qualification of a person to perform acts with legal effect. It is presumed in a person, but it is generally affected by their age and degree of discernment. The default is that every person is competent to act unless they are completely or partially incapacitated by a legal provision according to what is stipulated in Article (47).

It is established that acts performed by a person that have a legal effect are either material acts or legal acts.

  • Material acts are those that appear in the tangible world in a certain form. They can be either voluntary or involuntary, and these acts do not have an effect unless the law has determined this effect. The act may be beneficial, such as when a person performs an act that enriches another at their expense, which is enrichment without cause, or it may be harmful, such as when a person damages property owned by another, which is a harmful act.

  • Legal acts are voluntary acts intended to produce a legal effect. Here, the person intends to produce the effect, and capacity is a characteristic that attaches to the person, making their acts produce their legal effects.

  • The criterion for this capacity is discernment. If a person loses discernment, they are completely incapacitated, and if they have partial discernment, they are partially incapacitated.

From the above, we conclude that people are not equal in terms of performing acts that produce a legal effect. According to what will be stated in the following articles, they are of four types:

  • The first type: Fully capacitated, as explained in this article.
  • The second type: Completely incapacitated, as explained in Article (13).
  • The third type: Partially incapacitated, as explained in Article (14).
  • The fourth type: Partially incapacitated but authorized, as explained in Article (51).

It should be noted that the articles in this section related to capacity organize the classification of people in terms of capacity, including the conditions and restrictions for each type. As for their legal transactions or the effects of their material acts, they will be discussed in detail in the articles related to the capacity of contractors, harmful acts, and enrichment without cause. The explanation of those articles will include what is required for full capacity or its basic form without its completeness, and when those transactions are valid, void, or voidable, as well as the ruling on their transactions before and after interdiction.

This article, in its two paragraphs, began to explain the first type of people in terms of capacity, which is "fully capacitated," which is the default as previously indicated. Since the criterion for capacity is discernment, a person who is fully discerning is necessarily fully capacitated unless there is an impediment to capacity, as will be explained.

A person is fully capacitated if they have reached the age of majority, are of sound mind, and have not been interdicted. Interdiction, as will be explained in Article (14), is either for prodigality or for being heedless. With this definition, the following are excluded:

  1. Those who have not reached the age of majority, who may be completely incapacitated if they are below the age of discernment, or partially incapacitated if they are discerning but below the age of majority.

  2. The insane and the feeble-minded, as they do not possess full mental faculties. The former is completely incapacitated, and the latter is partially incapacitated.

Those interdicted for prodigality or heedlessness are partially incapacitated.

Maturity is the ability to manage wealth by preserving it from waste and knowing the legitimate ways to earn and spend it. The law has set a clear marker for it, which is the completion of eighteen lunar years. The default is that whoever completes it is mature unless proven otherwise.

The completion of a person's capacity according to the provisions of the article results in the termination of the guardianship or custodianship that was upon them, and the validity of their transactions regardless of the benefit or harm resulting from this transaction.

Related To

Article 12

  1. A fully competent person is a person who has reached the age of majority, has full mental capacity, and has not been interdicted.

  2. The age of majority shall be 18 years according to the Hijri calendar.