Mandatum

Mandatum is the Latin term for command, instruction, or directive. In legal contexts, it denotes the contract of mandate: a arrangement in which one person, the mandator, authorizes another, the mandatary, to perform certain acts on the mandator’s behalf. The mandatary acts in the name and for the benefit of the mandator, and the contract typically requires the mandatary to carry out the instructed tasks with care and fidelity. Remuneration is not essential to all mandata, though it can be agreed, and the mandator may be responsible for reasonable expenses or for the mandatary’s acts within the scope of authority.

Historically, in Roman law the mandatum was recognized as a distinct form of personal service contract aimed at the performance of specified tasks, such as managing affairs or handling errands, often without payment but sometimes for compensation. It is distinguished from other contracts by its focus on commissioning a service rather than the transfer of goods or money. In modern civil-law jurisdictions the concept survives as the mandate or agency: a principal delegates authority to an agent to act on the principal’s behalf in legal or commercial matters. The agent must act within the limits of the granted authority and with loyalty and due care; the principal is bound by the agent’s authorized acts, while unauthorized actions may incur liability for the agent or the principal.

The term also appears in ecclesiastical and theological Latin as mandatum, meaning commandment, and is notably associated with the phrase mandatum novum in Christian scripture. Nonetheless, its primary use in legal writing concerns the agency relationship of mandate.