Verb derived from the Latin obligāre, formed from ob- and ligāre, “to bind”; literally, the original idea is to bind someone to something. From the same root we have obligación (obligation), obligatorio (mandatory/compulsory) and obligado (obliged/bound). In Legal Spanish, obligar means to require or compel someone to do something, although in contractual contexts it can also mean “to bind”. The usual structure is obligar a alguien a hacer algo. E.g.: La ley obliga al empleador a informar al trabajador → The law requires the employer to inform the employee. It is particularly common in the language of contracts: El contrato obliga a las partes desde el momento de su firma → The contract binds the parties from the moment it is signed; El tribunal puede obligar a la parte demandada a cumplir el contrato → The court may compel the defendant to perform the contract. This brings us to an interesting problem for English speakers: the verb to enforce. I frequently hear enforzar used as though it were the Spanish equivalent, but it is not. There is no single Spanish verb corresponding to enforce in every context: hacer cumplir una ley → to enforce a law; ejecutar una sentencia → to enforce a judgment; hacer valer un derecho → to enforce a right; exigir el cumplimiento de una obligación → to enforce an obligation. However, obligar and enforce do meet when an authority or court compels someone to comply with an existing obligation. Thus, obligar a una parte a cumplir un contrato may be translated as “to enforce a contract against a party” or “to compel a party to perform a contract”. The difference is largely one of perspective: obligar normally focuses on the person who is compelled — obligar a una parte a cumplir el contrato — whereas enforce often focuses on the contract, right, judgment or obligation being enforced — to enforce the contract against a party. And be careful with forzar: it does exist, but normally means “to force”, as in forzar una puerta or forzar a alguien a hacer algo. So obligar, forzar and enforce sometimes inhabit the same territory, but they are certainly not interchangeable. dc
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