Legal acts are based on the expression of a will.
The concept of act finds its origin in the Latin word actus and is associated with the notion of action , understood as the possibility or result of doing something. A legal act , in this sense, constitutes an action that is carried out consciously and voluntarily with the purpose of establishing legal links between several people to create, modify or extinguish certain rights.
The importance of will
In other words, it can be said that a legal act is a manifestation of will whose purpose is to provoke legal consequences. These results are recognized through the legal system.
The basis of the legal act, therefore, is the declaration of will, which must be aware of the effects that the first will have, according to what the laws stipulate. The legal act seeks a variation in the state of things and causes the aforementioned legal consequences .
Types of legal act
It should be noted that there are multiple classifications for legal acts. They can be formal (in which effectiveness is tied to the formalities established and contemplated by law), although others can be non-formal (in them, their possible validity does not depend on solemnity).
There are also positive legal acts (their success depends on the performance of the act), negative (they involve an omission or abstention), unilateral (they arise from the will of a single party), bilateral (require the consent of a minimum of two parties), patrimonial (economic content), family (family rights and duties), gratuitous (the obligation falls on a single party, regardless of how many are involved) and onerous (reciprocal obligations), among other types.
Differences with legal facts
It is important to make distinctions between the concepts of legal act and legal fact. A legal fact constitutes a natural event that is characterized by not needing the intervention of the will to appreciate legal consequences, while a legal act, as we have said previously, requires approval; That is, it must meet certain conditions to be able to enforce compliance with the rights of the parties that carry it out. Both the act and the legal fact are the forms of realization of the legal assumptions.
The effects of legal acts are established by laws.
For a legal act to exist as such, that is, for the expression of the will of the person carrying it out to be protected by the Law, it is necessary that it meet a series of elements of existence and validity .
The elements of existence are essential and therefore if one of them is missing, the act could not be defined as such and, as absolute nullity would act, it could not produce any legal consequence or effect. These essential elements are: will of the author of the act when carrying it out, possible object from a physical and also legal point of view, and solemnity of the law . The latter is only required if the act is solemn; A declaration of will is made before the law in the act itself (it is necessary in marriages and signing of wills, among other acts).
In some cases, exceptions appear that, even if the fundamental requirements mentioned above had been met, could render the act invalid. They are contemplated in the legislature of each Nation and in each one they have different characteristics. In any case, the majority states that for an act to be valid , consent and the object are needed (essential for a contract to exist) and it can be declared invalid if the incapacity of some of the signing parties is proven. if the object involved is illicit or if there is any alteration of said contract that contravenes the laws. If there are no obstacles to the execution of the contract, then the legal act is signed, which obliges both parties to comply with what is signed while assuming the consequences that may arise due to the nature of the signed act, in accordance with the law that the parties protects