What is leonine?

What Does leonine Mean

The etymology of leonino leads us to the Latin word leonīnus . The first meaning mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) refers to that related to the lion (the feline mammal whose scientific name is Panthera leo ).

The most common use of the concept, however, allows qualifying a contract or an agreement that only provides advantages to one of the parties . When there is a lion's agreement, therefore, there are winners and losers.
For example: "The opposition denounced the leonine contract signed by the national government with the construction company" , "They lent me the money with leonine conditions, but I had to accept since I had no other option . "

In a leonine contract, all the gains are for one of the parties, while the losses are for the remainder or remainders. The clauses, in this framework, are imposed by the most powerful.
Let's suppose that a person who is left without a job needs money urgently to pay the rent of his house: otherwise he will be evicted. Faced with this situation, he goes to a lender who, taking advantage of the situation, imposes leonine clauses: he grants him a loan of 10,000 pesos that he must repay in twenty installments of 1,000 pesos; that is, with an interest of 100%.
The leonine contract belongs to the group of partnership contracts , which are those through which two or more parties, who may be natural or legal persons, agree to each contribute something to reach a common goal. The operation of this company is governed by the statutes that must be approved in this contract and the precepts that contravene them are annulled.
It is important to point out that the profits do not always go to one of the parties, but can go to two or more of them; however, it is true that the total losses are received by others. If we strictly base ourselves on the principles of equity, which in the field of legal science establishes that the court or judge must give each party what it deserves, without excess or reduction, we understand that a leonine contract cannot be approved by law and, therefore, is void by virtue of law.
The use of this term to denote an unfair contract has its origin in a very popular fable by the Roman fabulist known as Gaius Julius Phaedrus , Gaius, or simply Phaedrus . In this story, the lion associates with various animals to capture a prey but when he understands that if they distribute the food among all, it would not be enough for him, he decides to keep everything, using his superior strength to intimidate the rest.

There is also talk of a leonine clause to describe one that is not negotiated individually under the terms of a contract, but is imposed by only one of the parties on the rest. The leonine clauses are contrary to the principle of good faith since they cause a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties.
This type of clause is also known as abusive and the law considers it null and void , that is, it does not cancel the contract directly but does require a substantial alteration of it to prevent one of the parties from being harmed for the benefit of the other. .
Finally, in some South American countries , the individual who was born under the astrological sign of Leo is named as a lion . Those born between July 23 and August 22 , then, are leoninos, like Barack Obama , Sandra Bullock , Manu Ginobili and Ben Affleck .

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