In this paper, the author refers to a general description of legal and
jurisprudential treatment of the bilateral contract of promise in the
Colombian law, so much in Civil Code as in commercial code. The
author goes back to the antecedents of the contract in the French
Civil Code, in the projects of civil code elaborated by ANDRÉS BELLO, he stops later to study topics like: concept and elements; economic juridical function of the contract, main characteristic; differs with other contractual figures; and requirements. Finally it approaches the study of the promise contract in the Commercial Code. The study is supported in the consultation of authors and sentences of the Supreme Court of Justice.