This chapter focuses on the terms or details of a contractual agreement, and considers the implications of what the parties intend to include in the agreement, what they did not mean to be included in the contract, and what significance different terms may have in the contract. It distinguishes between the terms of a contract and representations, and considers whether, when a term has been identified as such, it is a ‘condition’ or a ‘warranty’. The chapter then studies how terms are implied into the contract and how this affects terms that have been expressed. It concludes by examining how parties may seek to exclude or limit a legal responsibility through the incorporation of an exclusion clause.
Chapter
8. Terms of a Contract
Chapter
6. Legitimate Expectations
Mark Elliott and Jason Varuhas
This chapter examines the doctrine of legitimate expectation and its application to lawfully created expectations as well as the extent, if any, to which it may protect ‘unlawfully generated expectations’. It first explains why legitimate expectations must be protected and goes on to discuss the relationship between two variables that are in play in any situation which potentially engages the legitimate expectation principle: that of legitimacy and that of the mode of protection which may be extended to expectations which satisfy the first criterion. The chapter then tackles the problematic question of unlawfully created expectations, focusing on the importance of securing fairness for the individual. It also considers the issues of constitutionality and public interest, along with representations issued by unauthorized officials and representations concerning action which is ultra vires the agency.
Chapter
5. Positive terms
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams and exercises help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. The terms of the contract give substance to the contractual parties’ obligations. They lay down what each party is expected to do in performance of his obligations, and so it is crucial in any dispute to first establish the terms of the contract before looking to see whether one party has failed to perform his obligations. This chapter focuses on the positive terms of the contract. The discussions cover terms and representations; collateral warranties; implied terms; and conditions, warranties and innominate terms and the significance of the remedies, including termination, attached to each.
Chapter
5. Content of the contract and principles of interpretation
Robert Merkin KC, Séverine Saintier, and Jill Poole
Poole’s Casebook on Contract Law provides a comprehensive selection of case law that addresses all aspects of the subject encountered on undergraduate courses. This chapter examines what the parties to a contract have undertaken to do; that is, the terms of the contract, and the principles determining how the courts interpret the meaning of those contractual terms. It considers whether pre-contractual statements are terms or mere representations. The chapter then turns to written contracts, focusing on the parol evidence rule, entire agreement clauses, and the effect of signature on the contractual document. It also discusses oral contracts and incorporation of written terms in such contracts by means of signature, reasonable notice, consistent course of dealing, and common knowledge of the parties. In addition to express terms, this chapter looks at how terms are implied, particularly terms implied by the courts—terms implied in law and terms implied in fact. There is discussion of the typical implied terms in sale and supply contracts in the B2B and B2C context. Finally, this chapter focuses on the principles governing the interpretation of contractual terms.
