contracts
CONTRACT LAW- EXAM NOTES
What is a contract?
An oral or written agreement between two or more parties which is enforceable by law. This agreement ‘will be legally binding if certain criteria are met – briefly, they require that there be an agreement (comprising an offer and acceptance), consideration, intention to create legal relations, compliance with any formalities required by law and that the parties have the legal capacity to contract’1
What is the purpose of contract law?
Although the fact that it is morally wrong to make promises that create expectations and not keep them is influential, the main reason contract law exists is for ‘commercial necessity’.
If the law did not ensure that promises declared in contracts were upheld, the economy as we know it would cease to exist, ‘as the production, distribution and exchange of goods or services at a sophisticated level would be impossible’2
Our system of supplying and acquiring goods and services relies heavily on the promises of buyers, sellers and manufacturers.
In the words of Kirby P in Biotechnology Australia Pty Ltd v Pace (1988) 15 NSWLR 130 at 132 ‘the law of contract…underpins the economy’3
Various types of contracts
Bi-Lateral Contracts:
The parties in this matter have entered into a bi-lateral contract for the (purchase and sale of land, purchase and sale of good, purchase and sale of property). Under bi-lateral contracts each party undertakes to the other party to do or refrain from doing something. In the event that he/she fails to perform his/her undertaking, the law provides the other party with a remedy (United Dominions Trust Ltd v Eagle Aircraft Services Ltd).
Uni-Lateral Contracts:
The parties in this matter have entered in a uni-lateral contract for the (purchase and sale of land, purchase and sale of goods, purchase and sale of property). Under a uni-lateral contract only one of the parties comes under an obligation to do or refrain from doing something
What is a contract?
An oral or written agreement between two or more parties which is enforceable by law. This agreement ‘will be legally binding if certain criteria are met – briefly, they require that there be an agreement (comprising an offer and acceptance), consideration, intention to create legal relations, compliance with any formalities required by law and that the parties have the legal capacity to contract’1
What is the purpose of contract law?
Although the fact that it is morally wrong to make promises that create expectations and not keep them is influential, the main reason contract law exists is for ‘commercial necessity’.
If the law did not ensure that promises declared in contracts were upheld, the economy as we know it would cease to exist, ‘as the production, distribution and exchange of goods or services at a sophisticated level would be impossible’2
Our system of supplying and acquiring goods and services relies heavily on the promises of buyers, sellers and manufacturers.
In the words of Kirby P in Biotechnology Australia Pty Ltd v Pace (1988) 15 NSWLR 130 at 132 ‘the law of contract…underpins the economy’3
Various types of contracts
Bi-Lateral Contracts:
The parties in this matter have entered into a bi-lateral contract for the (purchase and sale of land, purchase and sale of good, purchase and sale of property). Under bi-lateral contracts each party undertakes to the other party to do or refrain from doing something. In the event that he/she fails to perform his/her undertaking, the law provides the other party with a remedy (United Dominions Trust Ltd v Eagle Aircraft Services Ltd).
Uni-Lateral Contracts:
The parties in this matter have entered in a uni-lateral contract for the (purchase and sale of land, purchase and sale of goods, purchase and sale of property). Under a uni-lateral contract only one of the parties comes under an obligation to do or refrain from doing something