SECTION 2 : OBJECT OF CONTRACTS

ARTICLE. 1347. All things which are not outside the commerce of men, including future
things, may be the object of a contract. All rights which are not in transmissible may also be the
object of contracts.
No contract may be entered into upon future inheritance except in cases expressly
authorized by law.
All services which are not contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public
policy may likewise be the object of a contract. (1271a)

the object of a contract may be defined as the thing, right or service which is the sub-
ject matter of the obligation which is created or established. 141
REQUITES OF AN OBJECT
1. THE object should be within the commerce of men
2.The object should be real or possible
3.The object should be licit
4.The object should be determinate.

First: The object should be within the commerce of men; in other words, it should be
susceptible of appropriation and transmissible from one person to another.

Second: The object should be real or possible; in other words, it should exist at the
moment of the celebration of the contract, or at least, it can exist subsequently or in
the future.

Third: The object should be licit; in other words, it should not be contrary to law,
morals, good customs, public order or public policy.

Fourth: The object should be determinate, or at least, possible of determination, as to

its kind.145

The following cannot be the object of contracts: (1) Things which are outside the com-
merce of men;146 (2) intransmissible rights;147 (3) future inheritance, except in cases ex-
pressly authorized by law;148 (4) services which are contrary to law, morals, good cus-
toms, public order or public policy;149 (5) impossible things or services;150 and (6) ob-
jects which are not possible of determination as to their kind. 151

Those things do not possess these conditions or characteristics are outside the com-
merce of men, and therefore, cannot be the object of contracts. These include: (1)
those things which are such by their very nature, such as common things like the air or
the sea, sacred things, res nullius, and property belonging to the public domain; (2)
those which are made such by special prohibitions established by law, such as poi-
sonous substances, drugs, arms, explosives, and contrabands; and (3) those rights
which are intransmissible because either they are purely personal in character, such as
those arising from the relationship of husband and wife, like jus consortium, or from
the relationship of paternity and filiation, like patria potestas, or they are honorary or
political in character, such as the right to hold a public office and the right of suffrage.

Thus, in this jurisdiction, it has been held that communal things, such as public plazas,
sidewalks, streets, rivers, fountains and other things for public use cannot be sold or
leased because they are by their very nature outside the commerce of men.

Kinds of impossibility.
Impossibility may be:

(1) Physical. — when the thing or service in the very

nature of things cannot exist (e.g., a monkey that talks)
or be performed. With particular reference to services
(see Arts. 1266, 1267.), the impossibility may be:
(a) Absolute. — when the act cannot be done in any
case so that nobody can perform it (e.g., to fly like a bird,
etc.); or
(b) Relative. — when it arises from the special
circumstances of the case (e.g., to make payment to a
dead person, to drive a car on flooded highways, etc.) or
the special conditions or qualifications of the obligor (to
paint a portrait by a blind person, etc.); or

(2) Legal. — when the thing or service is contrary to law,

morals, good customs, public order, or public policy. An
act is contrary to law, either because it is forbidden by
penal law (e.g., to sell prohibited drugs, etc.) or a rule of
law makes it impossible to be done (e.g., to make a valid