In order to know the meaning of the term condonation, it is necessary, first of all, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can state that it is a word that derives from Latin, it exactly comes from the verb “condonare”, which can be translated as “forgive a debt or condemnation”.
Condonation is the act and result of condoning : exempting or forgiving the payment of a debt or the fulfillment of a sentence .
For example: "In a controversial decision, the national government decreed the forgiveness of the debt of an oil company" , "The forgiveness of fines will be made to those people without pending cases with Justice" , "The manager announced the forgiveness of punishment after the player apologized to his teammates.”
At the judicial level, forgiveness is a legal act carried out by a creditor renouncing his right to collect a debt and, thus, releasing the debtor from the corresponding payment. Condonation can be partial or total.
Jurists interpret the nature of condonation in different ways. For some specialists, this legal act is unilateral : it is specified through a decision made by the creditor. For other experts, however, forgiveness is contractual since it has to be accepted by the debtor.
Suppose that a State owes a multimillion-dollar sum to an international credit institution . Faced with an economic and social crisis, the government of the country in question maintains that it is not in a position to meet the debt maturities, which is why it begins a negotiation with the organization. For the creditor, a partial forgiveness of the debt can be beneficial since the debtor is in a position to pay a percentage of the debt, but not to pay the entire amount. In this way, the creditor accepts a forgiveness of 35% of said debt.
There are various types of forgiveness depending on the criteria taken into consideration. Good examples of this are the following:
-If we look at its form, we can find express and tacit condonation. The first takes place when the will to remit the debt is declared, while the second is what occurs when said will is deduced from a series of unequivocal acts of the creditor.
-In the event that its purpose is taken into consideration, the condonation may be total or partial. The first, the total one, is what occurs when the obligation is completely and comprehensively extinguished, with the consequences that this entails. The second, partial, is what takes place when the forgiveness only refers to a specific amount within the total or when it focuses on what the accessory obligations are.
In addition to everything indicated, it must be emphasized that it is established that the main purpose of condonation is none other than to ensure that an obligation can be fulfilled to a greater or lesser extent.