• Although the consensual contract was known to the common law, it originated in Roman law, where it embraced four types of contracts in which informal consent alone was suf-ficient: (1) an agency agreement (mandatum), (2) a partnership agreement (societas), (3) a sale (emptio venditio), or (4) a letting or hiring (locatio conductio). Cf. real contract.
consensual contract
Hist. A contract arising from the mere consensus of the parties, without any formal or symbolic acts performed to fix the obligation.