This chapter discusses the history of English contract law. It covers the medieval law; the origin of assumpsit; assumpsit and debt; the doctrine of consideration; and contract law in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Chapter
1. Historical Introduction
M P Furmston
Chapter
10. Contracts Rendered Void by Statute
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses two types of contracts rendered void by statute: wagering contracts and agreements prohibited by competition law (EU competition rules and UK competition rules).
Chapter
11. Contracts Illegal by Statute or at Common Law
M P Furmston
This chapter focuses on contracts prohibited by statute or contracts deemed illegal at common law on grounds of public policy, and discusses the consequences of illegality and proof of illegality.
Chapter
14. Privity of Contract
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses the doctrine of privity of contract. It covers exceptions to doctrine, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999; and attempts to impose liability upon nonparties to the contract.
Chapter
17. The Involuntary Assignment of Contractual Rights and Liabilities
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses the law on the automatic assignment of contractual rights and liabilities, which may occur upon the death or bankruptcy of one of the contracting parties.
Chapter
18. Performance and Breach
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses the law on performance and breach of contact. It covers the order of performance; excuses for non-performance; whether a party who does not perform perfectly can claim payment or performance from the other party; whether an innocent party who has paid in advance can recover his payment in the event of a failure of perfect performance; whether the innocent party can terminate the contract; the effect of a repudiation or a fundamental breach; the effect of discharging the contract for a bad reason, when a good reason also exists; contractual provisions for termination; stipulations as to time; and tender of performance.
Chapter
19. Discharge by Agreement
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses the law on discharge by agreement. An agreement by the parties to an existing contract to extinguish the rights and obligations which have been created is itself a binding contract, provided that it is either made under seal or supported by consideration. Consideration raises no difficulty if the contract to be extinguished is still executory, for in such a case each party agrees to release his rights under the contract in consideration of a similar release by the other. The discharge in such a case is bilateral, for each party surrenders something of value. Unilateral discharge occurs when the contract to be extinguished is wholly executed only on one side – as for instance where a seller has delivered the goods but the buyer has not paid the price. A unilateral discharge is usually ineffective unless it is made under seal or unless some valuable consideration is given by the buyer. Difficult problems arise where the agreement is designed to vary the contract.
Chapter
20. Discharge Under the Doctrine of Frustration
M P Furmston
This chapter begins with a discussion of the nature and rationale of the doctrine of frustration. It then explains the operation of the doctrine, covering the effect when parties expressly provide for the frustrating event; how a party cannot rely upon self-induced frustration; and the controversy as to whether the doctrine of frustration applies to a lease. The chapter then turns to the effect of the doctrine, covering the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 and contracts excluded from the Act.
Chapter
4. Consideration
M P Furmston
This chapter first discusses the function and definition of the doctrine of consideration, a unique feature of the Common Law, and then examines the technical rules that judges have evolved for the application of their doctrine of consideration. Consideration is classified into two categories, executory and executed. The classification reflects the two different ways in which the plaintiff may buy the defendant’s promise. Consideration is called executory when the defendant’s promise is made in return for a counter-promise from the plaintiff, and executed when it is made in return for the performance of an act.
Chapter
5. Intention to Create Legal Relations
M P Furmston
This chapter, which examines the requirements of intention to create legal relations, discusses its application to domestic agreements such as agreements between husband and wife and commercial agreements.
Chapter
7. Unenforceable Contracts
M P Furmston
This chapter and the next five chapters deal with cases where what looks like a contract turns out to be in someway defective. The ‘unenforceable contract’ resulted from procedural rather than substantive law. The origin of this position can be found in the passage, as long ago as 1677, of the Statute of Frauds. This chapter, which examines the history of this statute and its surviving effects in the modern law, discusses the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989; other rules about form; and the law on writing, signature, and electronic commerce.
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8. Mistake
M P Furmston
This chapter considers the circumstances in which a mistake by one or both parties may affect the validity of the contract, and discusses the two categories of case: (i) where agreement has been reached, but upon the basis of a common mistake; and (ii) where an apparent agreement is alleged to be vitiated by mutual or unilateral mistake. It also considers cases of documents mistakenly signed, that is, where a person is induced by the false statement of another to sign a written document containing a contract which is fundamentally different in character from that which he contemplated.
Chapter
9. Misrepresentation, Duress, and Undue Influence
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses three reasons why a contract may be invalid. These are that it was procured by misrepresentation (basically one party misleading the other), by duress (threats by one party to the other), or by undue influence (one party improperly taking advantage of the other).
Chapter
9. Obligations: Common Principles and Obligations Arising from Contracts
This chapter discusses the Roman law of obligations. The ‘obligation’, as a seminal part of Roman (and indeed modern) private law, is a legal tie created between individuals on account of voluntary interactions (such as contracts) or involuntary interactions (such as delicts). It begins with a general discussion of the nature and classification of obligations. This is an important aspect of the discussion as it links this particular branch of private law to other areas of Roman private law. It then covers the general features of Roman contracts; consensual contracts; verbal contracts; contracts re; contracts litteris; innominate contracts; pacts; and the quasi-contract. The next chapter is devoted to the other source of obligations, namely delicts and quasi-delicts. These two sources of obligations, namely contract and delict, form the substance of the law of obligations.
Chapter
12. Performance
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This chapter discusses the rules governing contract performance. It covers the standards of contractual duty, time of performance, place of performance, order of performance, payment, vicarious performance, alternative modes of performance, right of party in breach to cure bad or incomplete performance, tender, and partial performance.
Chapter
23. Agency
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
Agency is the relationship that exists where one person (the principal) authorizes another (the agent) to act on its behalf and the agent agrees to do so. This Chapter discusses the modes of agency creation and the different kinds of agency, and the effect of agency: (a) the relations between the principal and third parties; and (b) the relations between the agent and third parties.
Chapter
4. Consideration And Promissory Estoppel
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This chapter discusses consideration and promissory estoppel. Consideration, a universal requisite of contracts not made by deed, reflects a variety of policies and serves a number of functions. First, enforceability may depend on the content of the promise or the circumstances in which it was made. Second, consideration has been said to identify which promises the parties intend to be legally enforceable. Third, consideration is sometimes seen as a requirement which ensures that a promisor has deliberately decided to contract and prevents parties accidentally binding themselves on impulse. Promissory estoppel is one strand in a broader equitable principle whereby parties to a transaction who have conducted their dealings in reliance on an underlying assumption as to a present, past, or future state of affairs, or on a promise or representation by words or conduct, will not be allowed to go back on that assumption, promise, or representation when it would be unfair or unjust to do so.
Chapter
1. Introduction
This introductory chapter begins by setting out the book’s three principal aims: to provide an exposition of the rules that make up the law of contract, to explore the law of contract in its transactional context, and to explore English contract law from a transnational and comparative perspective. The discussions then turn to the scope of the law of contracts; the growth in the use of standard form contracts and the increasing complexity of the form and the content of modern contracts; transnational contract law; and conflicting policies that underpin the law of contract.
Chapter
2. Agreement: Objective or Subjective?
This chapter discusses the approach adopted by the courts when seeking to ascertain the intention of the parties to a contract. The general rule is that the existence and content of an agreement are questions that must be answered by reference to the intention of the parties, objectively ascertained. Two leading cases are presented that consider the scope of the objective test, namely Smith v. Hughes (1871) LR 6 QB 597 and Centrovincial Estates plc v. Merchant Investors Assurance Company Ltd [1983] Com LR 158. The discussion then turns to the case where one party attempts to ‘snap up’ an offer which he knew that the offeror did not intend, and the case where one party was at fault in failing to notice that the other party’s offer contained a mistake, or he was himself responsible for inducing that mistake in the other party. The chapter concludes that it is not necessary to resort to a subjective approach in order to explain these cases; they can be analysed in terms consistent with the objective test which is generally applied by the courts.
Chapter
12. Contracts Void at Common Law on Grounds of Public Policy
M P Furmston
This chapter examines the three types of contract that are treated by the courts as void: contracts to oust the jurisdiction of the courts; contracts prejudicial to the status of marriage; and contracts in restraint of trade. The legal consequences of such contracts are also discussed.
