An Examination of General and Specific Object and Its Function in Correcting Pre-sale Contracts of Buildings

Specific object and general object are the concepts widely used in contract law, which, according to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), can also be seen in the texts of case law. These two terms have philosophical and logical foundations that have been considered by their inventors. However, later it was neglected in the definitions of jurists and caused the misinterpretation of these two, and became the source of mixing of the types of objects, the effects of which are evident in various contracts, including the pre-sale of the building. Many believe that selling an unbuilt building through forward sale is considered void because it cannot be considered a general object. In the present study, while examining the logical and philosophical foundations of these two terms and the history of their origin and evolution in jurisprudence, it has been shown that the criterion for general and specific object in liability is not the actual multiplicity of external cases, but rather, the validity (in general objects) and invalidity (in specific objects) of multiple cases matter intellectually. In this way, the future building will be considered as a general object and there won't be any problem with the validity of its transfer through forward sale, in terms of the type of the sold object.