Transactional Capacity

in law, the capacity of an individual to acquire rights by his actions and to create legal responsibilities for himself. The concept of transactional capacity is fully elaborated and most often applied in relationships regulated by civil law.

In the USSR and other socialist countries, transactional capacity is acquired by citizens when they come of age—that is, at age 18. Socialist organizations acting in the capacity of independent holders of rights also acquire transactional capacity.

Under Soviet law, citizens over 18 years of age may make various kinds of contracts and bear personal liability for their unlawful acts. Minors from 15 to 18 years of age may, as a general rule, make contracts with the consent of their parents, foster parents, or guardians. However, minors have the right to enter independently into small agreements in everyday life, manage their earnings or scholarships, exercise rights under copyright and patent law, and make deposits in savings banks and dispose of them. If children are under 15 years old, contracts are made by their parents, foster parents, or guardians.

If as a result of mental illness or feeblemindedness a citizen is unable to understand the significance of his acts or exercise control over them, the court has the right to declare him legally incompetent and place him under guardianship. Citizens who, as a result of abuse of alcoholic beverages or drug addiction, jeopardize their families’ financial conditions may be restricted by the court in their transactional capacity. In such instances a guardianship is instituted: persons whose transactional capacity is restricted may not make contracts (except small ones in everyday life) without the consent of their guardians. The limits of the transactional capacity of legal persons, which coincide with their legal capacity to have rights and obligations, are determined by the charter referring to legal persons.

In most bourgeois states, individuals over 21 years old are legally competent.