A legal inquiry into prohibition should proceed in this order:
1. Wording: does the expression indicate a binding prohibition or another sense established by context?
2. Object: is the ban on an external act itself, a contract’s essential effect, an attached defect, or an adjacent circumstance?
3. Consequence: is the act unrecognized, defective, or capable of specific effects despite its unlawful manner?
4. Remedy: is rescission, abstention, proper performance at another time, or fulfillment of another right required?
Separating the conduct ruling from the legal consequences explains how a prohibited act may nonetheless give rise to certain effects.