Paper's abstract

Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Will and Obligation
Because law considers man as free, it set the human will as the source of the obligation he is subjected to. French law is especially marked by this link and often forgets the obligation as object. But law has also restricted the power of will, which cannot express itself purely without risking being immoderate and in principle allows it to create the obligation only after meeting another will, from which the contract is born. This link between will and obligation is not questioned by the evolution which consists in mediating their relation, through the situation will constituted or in which it moves, like a market for example.@Questioning their link is more radical when one thinks will is the only measure of the interest of the one that commits himself. Then it is the obligation that is denied because one executes the norm one is interested in without the need of being obliged. Obligation would be useless to the agent as described by economic theory or the game theory. But it may be in the interest of the agent to extract himself from the variation of his interest : then it is the juridical obligation which, via the play of its will, will be the only one in a position to serve this interest. Another sign that economy cannot do anything without the law.

Key Words : obligation, will, norm, economy
t. 44, 2000 : p. 129-151

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