Contract Law

Introduction:

A contract is described as "an agreement giving rise to obligations enforced or recognised by law" (Doolan, 2003), he continues to describe that a contract exists "when legally capable persons have reached agreement, or where the law considers them to have reached agreement"

Doolan also illustrates that "The Law of Contract concerns itself with all contracts. Not alone does it apply to contracts worth considerable sums of money, but the same rules govern simple contracts, such as the purchase of a newspaper, having a haircut or taking a bus journey" (Doolan, 2003)

A contract in itself doe not have to be exclusively a written agreement but it can take the form of verbal or inferred agreement. These are the three forms of contract. An inferred contract occurs where one party infers an offer and another party infers acceptance. For example, a person buying a newspaper in shop would infer that he wants to go into a contract by handing over the price of the paper. He would not explicitly indicate that he wants to go into a contract. The Shop assistant would infer acceptance of the offer by taking the money.

There are three essential ingredients to a contract. They are

(i) An Agreement. The first essential element of a contract is that both parties understand and realise that there is an agreement of terms and conditions in order for the contract to arise.

(ii) An Intention to be bound by contract. That both parties know that they are to be willingly bound by contract.

(iii) Consideration. Consideration is "to be successful in an action of a contract, it must be proven that one party gave, or promised to give, some advantage to the other party in return for the latter's promise. This advantage moving from one party to the other party is known in law