Quid pro quo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quid pro quo (Latin for "something for something" [1]) indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean, "a favor for a favor," and the phrases, "what for what", "give and take" and "tit for tat" have similar meanings. In Portuguese and French it means a misunderstanding: taking one thing to mean or be another, as it does in Italian, where it is used in its original form: qui pro quo [2]. In those languages, the (Latin) phrase corresponding to the English usage is do ut des (Latin for "I give, so that you give").
In legal usage, quid pro quo indicates that an item or a favor has been traded in return for something of value, usually when the propriety or equity of the transaction is in question. For example, under the common law, a binding contract must involve consideration: that is, the exchange of something of value for something of economic value. If the exchange appears excessively one sided, the court may question whether a quid pro quo exists and the contract may be voidable.
Another set of examples arises when an exchange is prohibited by public policy. Where prostitution is illegal, it remains common and lawful to use gifts, expensive meals and so on, as means of attracting a sexual partner. The distinction is whether sexual favors are directly conditioned on the gifts and vice-versa. In the absence of such a quid pro quo, there is no prostitution. Similarly, political donors are legally entitled to support candidates that hold positions with which the donors agree, or which will benefit the donors. Such conduct becomes bribery only when there is an identifiable exchange between the contribution and official acts, previous or subsequent, and the term, quid pro quo denotes such an exchange. The term may also be used to describe blackmail, where a person offers to refrain from some harmful conduct in return for valuable consideration.
The term is also widely used to denote a type of sexual harassment in two variations, one of which answers to bribery and the other to blackmail. In the former case, unwarranted advancement is offered in return for sexual favors. In the second, deserved advancement, or simple continuation in service, is conditioned on such favors. Since it is not unlawful per se for a boss to ask a subordinate for sex, nor vice-versa, it is the quid pro quo that makes the situation repugnant to the law.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Merriam-Webster, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition), and the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third Edition)[1] all so define the Latin expression.
- ^ In Medieval Latin the expression qui pro quo referred to any copying mistake made by a scribe ("qui instead of quo"), where qui is the nominative case and quo the ablative case of the same personal pronoun.
