Capacity

     One escape from contractual obligations is provided by a set of rules relating to one's capacity to enter into a contract.   Persons who have entered contracts before attaining the age of majority, or while incapacitated by mental illness or defect or by intoxicants or drugs, incur only voidable contractual duties.  See R.2d Contracts 7, 12, 14, 15, and 16.  A person who has incurred a voidable contractual duty may perform the contract and insist on its performance by the other contracting party or may avoid the obligations of the contract.  But a person who's property is under guardianship by reason of an adjudication of mental illness or defect does not even have the capacity to incur voidable contractual obligations.  R.2d Contracts 13. 

     These materials do not explore the details of the relevant rules or the theoretical questions posed by issues of capacity, in part because most first year law students explore analagous issues and rules in the context of criminal responsibility. 

     Supplementary reading:  Farnsworth 4.2-4.8.