Contract and the Law of Property

Many commercial transactions involve both the law of obligations and the law of property, and so have both proprietary and obligationary or contractual elements. A contract of sale, for instance, obliges the seller to deliver the thing being sold to the buyer. As such, it is the underlying reason orcausafor the subsequent transfer of ownership. It does not, however, effect the transfer, which is accomplished by the real or transfer agreement (the concurring intentions of the parties to give and receive transfer of ownership). If the underlying contract is invalid, ownership will nonetheless pass, because Kenyan law adheres to the abstract rather than the causal system of transfer. The transferor, however, will generally have the option of an enrichment action to recover the property.