Written contract with witnesses
Contrato escrito con testigos y depósito notarial
- Date
- c. 450 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Athens, Greece
- Credited to
- Athenian and Babylonian legal practice
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A private agreement drawn up in writing, sealed, witnessed and deposited with a third party, enforceable before the courts. It replaces the oral oath with a documentary proof.
Written contracts existed in Mesopotamia from the 3rd millennium; the classical novelty is their mass use among private individuals in alphabetic writing.
What it led to
- Legal certainty that made long-distance trade between strangers possible
- Development of Roman obligations law (stipulatio, mutuum)
- The professions of scribe, notary and lawyer
- Public archives and property registers
Built on
Made possible
- Codified Roman law
- Notarial system
- Merchant company