COMMUNITY. This word has several meanings; when used in common parlance1 it signifies the body of the people.
2. In the civil law, by community is understood corporations, or bodies politic2. Dig. 3, 4.
3. In the French law, which has been adopted in this respect in Louisiana, Civ. Code, art. 2371, community is a species of partnership3, which a man and woman contract when they are lawfully4 married to each other. It consists of the profits of all, the effects of which the husband has the administration and enjoyment5, either of right or in fact; of the produce of the reciprocal industry and labor6 of both husband and wife, and of the estates which they may acquire during the marriage, either by donations made jointly7 to them, or by purchase, or in any other similar way, even although the purchase he made in the name of one of the two, and not of both; because in that case the period of time when the purchase is made is alone attended to, and not the person who made the purchase. 10 L. R. 146; Id. 172, 181; 1 N. S. 325; 4 N. S. 212. The debts contracted during the marriage enter into the community, and must be acquitted8 out of the common fund; but not the debts contracted before the marriage.
4. The community is either, first, conventional, or that which is formed by an express agreement in the contract of marriage itself; by this contract the legal community may be modified, as to the proportions which each shall take, or as to the things which shall compose it; Civ. Code of L. art. 2393; second, legal, which takes place when the parties make no agreement on this subject in the contract of marriage; when it is regulated by the law of the domicil they had at the time of marriage.
5. The effects which compose the community of gains, are pided *into two equal portions between the heirs, at the dissolution of the marriage. Civ. Code of L. art. 2375. See Poth. h. t.; Toull. h. t.; Civ. Code of Lo. tit. 6, c. 2, s. 4.
6. In another sense, community is the right which all men have, according to the laws of nature, to use all things. Wolff, Inst. 186.
COMMUTATION, punishments. The change of a punishment to which a person has been condemned9 into a less severe one. This can be granted only by the executive authority in which the pardoning power resides.
COMMUTATIVE CONTRACT, civil law. One in which each of the contracting parties gives and, receives an equivalent. The contract of sale is of this kind. The seller gives the thing sold, and receives the price, which is the equivalent. The buyer gives the price and receives the thing sold, which is the equivalent.
2. These contracts are usually distributed into four classes, namely; Do ut des; Facio ut facias; Facio ut des; Do ut facias. Poth. Obl. n. 13. See' Civ. Code of Lo. art. 1761.
COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE. That virtue10 whose object is, to render to every one what belongs to him, as nearly as may be, or that which governs contracts.
2. The word commutative is derived11 from commutare, which signifies to exchange. Lepage, El. du Dr. ch. 1, art. 3, 3. See Justice.
TO COMMUTE12. To substitute one punishment in the place of another. For example, if a man be sentenced to be hung, the executive may, in some states, commute his punishment to that of imprisonment13.
COMPACT, contracts. In its more general sense, it signifies an agreement. In its strict sense, it imports a contract between parties, which creates obligations and rights capable of being enforeed, and contemplated14 as such between the parties, in their distinct and independent characters. Story, Const. B. 3, c. 3; Rutherf. Inst. B. 2, c. 6, 1. 2. The constitution of the United States declares that no state shall, without the consent of congress, enter into agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power. See 11 Pet: 1; 8 Wheat. 1 Bald. R. 60; 11 Pet. 185.
