UNIT ONE
CONTRACT LAW
Section A
Understanding of Contract
1 In the eyes of lawyers the word ―contract‖ is used in common speech, simply to refer to a writing containing terms on which the parties have agreed. ―Contract‖ is often used in a more technical sense to mean a promise, or a set of promises, that the law will enforce or at least recognize in some way. British law defines contract as an agreement arising from offer and acceptance. One party makes an offer, and another party accepts that offer. When this has happened (provided that other necessary factors, namely, consideration and intention to contract, are present) there is a contract.
2 In arguing the definition of contract some jurisprudents think neither promise nor agreement is completely satisfactory as a basis for the definition. They claim that the definition of the American Restatement ignores the bargain—the exchange of equivalents which is the essence of a contract. No indication is made in the definition that the typical contract is a two-sided affair, something being promised or done on one side in return for something being promised or done on the other side. Thus to say that a contract can simply be ―a promise‖ is to overlook the fact that there is generally some act or promise given in return for the other promise before that promise becomes a contract. Even to say that a contract may consist of ―a set of promises‖ gives no indication that some of these promises are usually given in return for some
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others. But it would be wrong to assume that all contracts are genuine bargains in which something is offered on one side for something else of equivalent value on