Statutory Restrictions

A certain French ordonnance of 1667 has been thought to have, perhaps, suggested the English statute of 1689, which recites its purpose to be "prevention of many fraudulent practices which are commonly endeavoured to be upheld by perjury and subornation of perjury". Accordingly, the statute requires that certain contracts be in writing, and those for sales of "goods, wares or merchandise of over ten pounds price" in writing, or that there be a part-delivery or part-payment. This enactment, known as the Statute of Frauds, has, with numerous variations, been embodied in statutes in the United States (except in Louisiana), carrying, to quote from the American commentator, "its influence through the whole body of our civil jurisprudence" (Kent, op. cit., 494, note a).

By the early Roman law many contracts were enforceable by legal action after any lapse of time however long. But, to quote the Institutes, "Sacrae constitutiones....actionibus certos fines dederunt" (the imperial constitutions assigned fixed limits to actions), so that, after certain prescribed periods, no legal remedy would be provided to enforce the obligation of contracts ("The Institutes of Justinian", Bk. IV, tit. xii; Bk. II, tit. vi). Such positive restrictions on the legal remedy are in English law contained in enactments known as Statutes of Limitation (Blackstone, op. cit., Bk. III, 307). One ancient English statute fixed for limitation of certain actions the time of the coming of King John from Ireland, another statute the coronation of Henry III (Blackstone, op. cit., Bk. III, 188). But modern statutes, as well in England as throughout the United States, limit the remedy to certain periods from the time of entering into contracts, adopting the manner of the Roman constitutions. The legal maxim Leges vigilantibus non dormientibus subveniunt (the laws aid the vigilant, not the careless) is applicable to private suitors (Blackstone, op. cit.). But nullum tempos occurrit regi (no time runs against the king), and therefore, unless specially mentioned, the government is not included within the restrictions of a statute of limitations. According to ancient English legal conceptions these statutes ought not to bind the king, for the reason that he "is always busied for the public good, and therefore has not leisure to assert his right within the times limited to subjects" (ibid., Bk. I, 247).

Inviolability of Contracts

To secure inviolability of contracts, the Constitution of the United States (Art. 1, Sect. 10) provides that no State shall pass a "law impairing the obligation of contracts". By obligation is meant that legal obligation which exists "wherever the municipal law recognizes an absolute duty to perform a contract". And the word contract being used in this clause of the Constitution without qualification, the protection of the Constitution is not confined to executory contracts, but embraces also executed contracts, such as a grant which, because it amounts to an extinguishment of the right of the party, implies a contract not to reassert the right. And the Constitution also protects even state charters granted to private persons for private purposes, whether these be literary, charitable, religious, or commercial. (See also DONATION.)