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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.

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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.

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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

Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

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.

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Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

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.

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Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

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.

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Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

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.

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Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

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.

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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.

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Cover Cheshire, Fifoot, and Furmston's Law of Contract

1. Historical Introduction  

M P Furmston

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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Cover Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law

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.

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15. Discharge for Breach  

Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright

If one of the parties to a contract breaches an obligation which the contract imposes, that party is in breach of contract. The breach may consist in the non-performance of the relevant obligation, or its performance in a manner or at a time that fails to comply with the requirements of the contract. This chapter sets out the rules governing the discharge of a contract by breach. It shows that the breach may give rise to discharge only if it is sufficiently serious in its effects (a breach which ‘goes to the root of the contract’, or a ‘repudiation’ of the contract) or if it is a breach of a sufficiently serious term of the contract (breach of ‘condition’).

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16. Discharge by Operation of Law  

Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright

This chapter considers the rules of law which, operating upon certain sets of circumstances, will bring about the discharge of a contract. The discussions cover mergers, discharged by judgment of a court, alteration or cancellation of a written instrument, and bankruptcy.

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Cover Anson's Law of Contract

3. Form  

Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright

English law recognizes only two kinds of contract: the contract made by deed, and the simple contract. A contract made by deed derives its validity solely from the form in which it is expressed. A simple contract as a general rule need not be made in any special form, but requires the presence of consideration, which broadly means that something must be given in exchange for a promise. This chapter examines contracts by deed and (simple) contracts for which writing is required.