Resolve
RDF Terms

Commitment

A promise made by a single party to one or more parties to do or not do something or act in a particular way.

Upon selling a treasury bill, the U.S. government makes a commitment to pay the purchaser a stated amount of money at a stated time.

When signing an NDA, the signatory commits to keeping specified information confidential.

A commitment is unilateral in that it is binding on only one party. This contrasts with gist:Agreement, which consists of commitments that bind two or more parties.

A single commitment may be made to multiple parties at once; it is a single commitment rather than multiple commitments if the same action would fulfill the obligation to all the parties simultaneously. For example, a performer makes a single commitment to hold a performance to all ticket purchasers; by holding the performance, the commitment to all parties is fulfilled in a single action.

The manner in which a commitment is binding may vary. In a business context, we are typically interested in commitments that are legally binding.