英文法律词典 I-9

IMMORAL CONSIDERATION. One contrary to good morals, and therefore invalid. See Moral obligation.

IMMORALITY. that which is contra bonos mores. In England, it is not punishable in some cases, at the common law, on, account of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions: e. g. adultery. But except in cases belonging to the ecclesiastical courts, the court of king's bench is the custom morum, and may punish delicto contra bonos mores. 3 Burr. Rep. 1438; 1 Bl. Rep. 94; 2 Strange, 788. In Pennsylvania, and most, if not all the United States, all such cases come under one and the same jurisdiction.

2. Immoral contracts are generally void; an agreement in consideration of future illicit cohabitation between the parties; 3 Burr. 1568; S. C. 1 Bl. Rep. 517; 1 Esp. R. 13; 1 B. & P. 340, 341; an agreement for the value of libelous and immoral pictures, 4 Esp. R. 97; or for printing a libel, 2 Stark. R. 107; or for an immoral wager, Chit. Contr. 156, cannot, therefore, be enforced. For whatever arises from an immoral or illegal consideration, is void: quid turpi ex causa promissum est non valet. Inst. 3, 20, 24.

3. It is a general rule, that whenever an agreement appears to be illegal, immoral, or against public policy, a court of justice leaves the parties where it finds them; when the agreement has been executed, the court will not rescind it; when executory, the count will not help the execution. 4 Ohio R. 419; 4 John. R. 419; 11 John. R. 388; 12 John. R. 306; 19 John. R. 341; 3 Cowen's R. 213; 2 Wils. R. 341.

IMMOVABLES, civil law. Things are movable or immovable. Immovables, res immobiles, are things in general, such as cannot move themselves or be removed from one place to another. But this definition, strictly speaking, is applicable only to such things as are immovable by their own nature, and not to such as are so only by the destination of the law.

>2. There are things immovable by their nature, others by their destination, and others by the objects to which they are applied.

3. - 1. Lands and buildings or other constructions, whether they have their foundations in the soil or not, are immovable by their nature. By the common law, buildings erected on the land are not considered real estate, unless they have been let into, or united to the land, or to substances previously connected therewith. Ferard on Fixt. 2.

4. - 2. Things, which the owner of the land has placed upon it for its service and improvement, are immovables by destination, as seeds, plants, fodder, manure, pigeons in a pigeon-house, bee-hives, and the like. By the common. law, erections with or without a foundation, when made for the purpose of trade, are considered personal estate. 2 Pet. S. C. Rep. 137; 3 Atk. 13; Ambl. 113

5. - 3. A servitude established on real estate, is an instance of an immovable, which is so considered in consequence of the object to which it is applied. Vide Civil Code of Louis. B. 2, t. 1, c. 2, art. 453-463; Poth. Des Choses, 1; Poth. de la Communante, n. 25, et seq; Clef des Lois Romaines, mot Immeubles.

IMMUNITY. An exemption from serving in an office, or performing duties which the law generally requires other citizens to perform. Vide Dig. lib. 50, t. 6; 1 Chit. Cr. L. 821; 4 Har. & M'Hen. 341.

IMMUTABLE. What cannot be removed, what is unchangeable. The laws of God being perfect, are immutable, but no human law can be so considered.

IMPAIRING THE OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS. The Constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 9, cl. 1, declares that no state shall "pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts."

2. Contracts, when considered in relation to their effects, are executed, that is, by transfer of the possession of the thing contracted for; or they are executory, which gives only a right of action for the subject of the contract. Contracts are also express or implied. The constitution makes no distinction between one class of contracts and the other. 6 Cranch, 135; 7 Cranch, 164. 3. The obligation of a contract here spoken of is a legal, not a mere moral obligation; it is the law which binds the party to perform his undertaking. The obligation does not inhere or subsist in the contract itself, proprio vigore, but in the law appli- cable to the contract. 4 Wheat. R. 197; 12 Wheat. R. 318; and. this law is not the universal law of nations, but it is the law of the state where the contract is made. 12 Wheat. R. 213. Any law which enlarges, abridges, or in any manner changes the intention of the parties, resulting from the stipulations in the contract, necessarily impairs it. 12 Wheat. 256; Id. 327; 3 Wash. C. C. Rep. 319; 8 Wheat. 84; 4 Wheat. 197.

4. The constitution forbids the states to pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts, but there is nothing in that instrument which prohibits Congress from passing such a law. Pet. C. C. R. 322. Vide, generally, Story on the Const. 1368 to 1891 Serg. Const. Law, 356; Rawle on the Const. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; 10 Am. Jur. 273-297.