An obligation is a course of action that someone is required to take, whether legal or moral. There are also obligations in other normative contexts, such as obligations of etiquette, social obligations, and possibly in terms of politics, where obligations are requirements which must be fulfilled. These are generally legal obligations, which can incur a penalty for unfulfilment, although certain people are obliged to carry out certain actions for other reasons as well, whether as a tradition or for social reasons. Obligations vary from person to person: for example, a person holding a political office will generally have far more obligations than an average adult citizen, who themselves will have more obligations than a child. Obligations are generally granted in return for an increase in an individual's rights or power. For example, obligations for Health and Safety in a workplace from employer to employee maybe to ensure the Fire exit isn't blocked or ensure that the plugs are put in firmly.
The word "obligation" can also designate a written obligation, or such things as bank notes, coins, checks, bonds, stamps, or securities.
Read more about Obligation: Other Uses
Other articles related to "obligation":
... s 1, because there was not sufficient 'mutuality of obligation' when the guides were not actually guiding ... there would not have been an ‘irreducible minimum of mutuality of obligation necessary to create a contract of service’ (relying on Nethermere) between the times actually working (while ... of March 1989, then I would hold as a matter of construction that no obligation on the CEGB to provide casual work, nor on Mrs Leese and Mrs Carmichael to undertake it, was imposed ...
... The first general obligation in the Directive is to provide security of services ... This obligation also includes the duty to inform the subscribers whenever there is a particular risk, such as a virus or other malware attack ... The second general obligation is for the confidentiality of information to be maintained ...
... In the Catholic Church, Holy Days of Obligation or Holidays of Obligation, less commonly called Feasts of Precept, are the days on which, as canon 1247 of the Code of Canon ...
... question is in Latin and the reply is in Greek, the obligation is settled providing the two correspond ... on to say that other languages can only produce an obligation, not an action ... it may be that other languages could have been used.) An obligation is only produced where both parties understand each other, but this may be through an ...
... In the UK, a Compulsory Stock Obligation (CSO) is a minimum stock of fuel reserves that must be held by a supplier against shortages or interruptions in supply ... Companies incur an obligation if they are a supplier of a volume of 100,000 tonnes per annum or greater ... This obligation is assessed as being a holding of 67.5 days' stock (50 days for the UK) ...
Famous quotes containing the word obligation:
“There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“No obligation to do the impossible is binding.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“The debt was the most sacred obligation incurred during the war. It was by no means the largest in amount. We do not haggle with those who lent us money. We should not with those who gave health and blood and life. If doors are opened to fraud, contrive to close them. But don’t deny the obligation, or scold at its performance.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)