Introduction
Contract law is a collection of legitimate directions which oversee the legitimacy, affiliation, and content of any treaty that exists among corporations, entities, and various other organizations. The agreement concerns the exchange of ownership, interests, the provision of services, and the sale of goods. The law of contract always governs the consequences and conclusions of any form of contract. It describes the duties and rights as well as the requirements and basis of the contracting parties.
Furthermore, contract law regulates contract breaches and offers remedies for such breaches (Christie, 1994). Therefore, since contracts aim at formalizing agreements between parties as regards specific subjects, contract law oversees the conclusion of the contractual responsibilities and obligations. This paper critically analyzes the law of contract concerning the legal issues involved, the ethical issues relating to contracts and offers suggestions for perfection in this particular area of law.
Legal aspects of Contract law
Contract law was precisely defined as a collection of assurances or assurance that could be prescribed by the ruling. A marginally contending description is that binding contracts are treaties that produce commitments that are accredited and prescribed by the prevailing Act. The descriptions are inclusive yet they do not entirely take account of the situational domains upon which the rule of the agreement will relate. However, either of these definitions confirms the law’s involvement using enforcement.
This openly submits that as long as there is a violation or an infringement of the contractual terms, then the injured contracting party has the lawful privileges to pursue infringement remedies using the law courts. Regularly, contracts might surface in a surfeit of conditions instigation from ordering biscuits from the junction stalls to retailing assets or stocks. Hence, it is predictable that there must be certain before any law court can arbitrate to enforce a binding agreement (Collins, 2003). This indicates that, notwithstanding the affluence and convolution, the contract laws had traditionally laid the basic underpinning for the binding treaties that ought to be sealed off to permit the contracting parties to have their agreements to be enforced by the bylaws.
In any contract, there should be an accepted offer that would lead to an agreement. Although at first, this might seem self-explanatory, it is deemed imperative that the contracting parties must differentiate between what the law states would amount to a valid offer and those that will not. In an agreement, an offer can be made by way of conduct, in writing, or orally. Notwithstanding the mode of the offer, it is the offeree’s intentions or willingness that is of great essence and this is subjective. For example, if an individual quotes that he or she would want to sell an apple for $ 2.00 but erroneously advertises it for one penny which makes the offer be accepted, it would mean that a binding agreement has been upheld. The contract cannot be invalidated just because the offer had an error. The certainty is that the offeree had some intentions to sell the apple. However, at this point, it becomes significant to distinguish between an invitation to treat and an offer (Christie, 1994).
In the law of contract, is it true that parties might enter into pre-emptive talks or preliminary negotiations before taking up a contract? Any issues covered during such a session are deemed not to be components of the contract. They are regarded as invitations to treat. Typical cases for these relate to the displayed products on the superstore shelves. The underlined charges merely sum to the invitations to treat. Before the products are taken for price confirmation at the counters, the offer will not materialize. Thus, to complete the transaction and formalize the contract, the client must accept the commodities and pay the total sum. In the auction room, a similar situation is always apparent (Richards, 2007). The offers are merely completed when the eventual clients propose their submissions and consent when the auctioneers’ strikes land down.
The legitimacy of any acceptance is corresponding as critical as the offer cited in the contract law. This should be a definite expression of agreement to the offer terms. As soon as the offer becomes approved, it will not proclaim the objective or approval. There has to be a flawless and unambiguous announcement of the offer approval derived from the terms that an individual making the offer has made known. A counteroffer will amount in case there is an attempt to alter the offer terms. In effect, the parties will have to start afresh in situations where counter-offers materialize, except that the offer will have to be wide-open for acceptance with the offeror replacing the offeree (Liuzzo, 2010). In the first instance, the consequence of the contractual law might not be indistinct at this point. Nevertheless, the law of contract does not merely govern what takes place in case a contract is broken down, but it equally creates the contract terms when a dispute occurs.
Whereas the deal might be self-illuminating as regards to what the partaking parties anticipate, for instance, pay $45 and I will give this milling tool, there must be conditions to be accomplished namely period for supply, the state of the supplies, and the recompense time that should be honored. About this, the most crucial citations are the modes of payments and the value/quality of the commodities. Various regulations are subject to introducing conditions into the obligatory treaties devoid of any settlement or acceptance amongst the mutually agreeing parties that such conditions will equally be integrated into their contract. The Sale of Goods Act 1979 serves as a good example.
This Act ensures that in the course of any business, goods sold to consumers must characterize their descriptions, be fit for their purpose, and must be of acceptable quality (Collins, 2003). The contract law is inclined to safeguard the buyer’s or shoppers’ rights without informing them. To illustrate this, there are phrases often exhibited at counters concerning offers and sales. Such implied terms include “these will not affect the consumers’ legal rights”.
Offer in a contract in addition to acceptance generally forms the discernible treaty settings, despite the fact the consideration obligation is even more apparent. Consideration is a term referring to the monetary exchange for commodities or any valuable thing traded among the contracting parties. This makes it to be the prickliest and compound condition for any legitimately binding contract. The contract becomes more of a promise that could be enforced under the English Law provided some forms of consideration do not exist. However, it is not sufficient that the contracting parties must make such an exchange of worth (Liuzzo, 2010).
In reality, it ought not to be a derisory consideration but instead a treasured consideration. The treasured consideration conception denotes something with the capacity of being appraised in terms of fiscal or pecuniary worth. It is not deemed sufficient that such consideration had previously occurred, there should be a concurrent value taking place through the exchange to produce a formalized agreement. Such technicalities have brought about rafts of case laws deriving from the issues appertaining to what adds up to consideration. Thus, it delineates the significance of the law of contract in arbitrating such disputes.
When the agreements amongst individuals are confirmed as agreements containing monetary exchanges, offers as well as acceptances, there still ought to be an obligatory intent to form legitimate or legal relationships. In commercial transactions, it might be apparent that the contracting parties had the intention of creating legal associations (O’Sullivan & Hilliard, 2010). Despite the intentions, in an informal and relaxed situation, they might still be the inquiry on how serious the contracting parties were. This does not necessarily imply that clients can freely return commodities based on claims that they were not cognizant of the intent of establishing such legalities.
Habitually, the judges may obtain interpretations from the collective acquaintance and how the customers are well-versed on the obligatory nature of a treaty and the intent of sellers to have them pay for commodities. In this instance, the point of reference is where a particular contracting party is well acquainted with the prevalent fault yet fails to notify the other contracting party who misguidedly trusts that formal intents were not known. The court of law is hence bound to draw on the unprejudiced tests to consider every fact relating to the individual cases. For instance, a case that involved a novice lawyer who accepted Barrister Chambers’s offer was found to be in a binding agreement (Collins, 2003).
The treaty was amongst the all-inclusive chambers and the apprentice, but not really amid the principal and the apprentice. It was established that any assertion by the attorney chambers that they hardly had any aims was inapt. From the parties involved, it is evident that the intentions were very clear.
On the other hand, an informal agreement that exists amid cohabitants’ who live in quasi-marital affiliations might result in disputes. This may specifically occur when the relationship breaks up. Primarily, it was questioned whether a treaty would be existent if a home-based mom finds herself lacking an option through the matrimonial statute. In a real sense, the contract was assumed to involve an offer to be upheld by the husband for life and this was acceptable (Liuzzo, 2010).
Conversely, the consideration was to forgo the right to provide a house for the household and to make a living. The exclusive problem related to the prescribed intent to form a ratified association and this seemed like a barrier that could not be outdone by different womankind. Although there are different justice recourses to aid in such circumstances, it functions as an essential case of how the pledging entities may disavow what primarily looked like a realistically tying treaty. The best way of ensuring that a binding agreement depicts the contracting parties’ intention is through writing such an agreement down. A sufficing statement would take the form of, “this contract does not reflect a formalized legal agreement”.
Contracts and ethics
Business entails the production, selling, and exchange of commodities. Business and contract always move together and without one the other might fail to exist. Thus, there are various ethical issues relating to contracts. For example, before getting involved in a contract, the contracting parties must confirm the age of the other party to the contract. This implies that it is unethical to enter into a binding agreement with minors.
Besides, consideration must be taken to avoid contracting with people of unsound minds. Only grown-ups of normal capacity and intelligence should be involved in any contract. When entering into a binding agreement or contract, good return policies should be adhered to after the completion of a transaction. The partaking parties must not desire to benefit at the expense of infringing the rights of other contracting parties.
Statement supporting the argument
The law of contract has been applied in every aspect of human life. This varied from transference and occupation to leisure and collective events like obtaining thirst-quenchers in bars and restaurants. All these activities involve the creation of contracts. Even if most of them are momentary and the conditions look modest and rather unpretentious, the treaty promises are being broken. This calls for more serious contract law enforcement (O’Sullivan & Hilliard, 2010).
The view of the societies as regards to contracts materialize to be distorted given that quite a number of them barely get it indispensable to implement the conditions. Since we are residing in an industrial realm where there are scores of selection liberty, the obligations to promise quality normally disavow the shoppers’ requirement to enact their privileges concerning the appropriateness and worth under the trade treaty.
Most standards seem to be upheld by independent organizations and governmental bodies. Consumers hardly have the urge to enforce contract breaches. If they do, the dealers seem to be quite responsive to their rights to an extent that they hardly permit the questioning of the exchanged commodities (Christie, 1994). This means that frequently, the sellers and suppliers enforce the payment terms by defaulting on the agreements.
Furthermore, credit concerns are presently dominant and promises which regulate currency lending under universal treaties such as credit cards alongside rental purchases are frequently breached. This constitutes the other perspective of the law of contract. Conditions and terms always prevail for both the contracting parties and this should form the basis of a legal contract. The consideration must be observed and without it, there could be nothing above unenforceable promises.
Conclusion
The law of contract needs to adjust with any advancement in social, economic, and technological outlooks. The responsibility lies with the parliament because it is always mandated to strongly arbitrate, enact and introduce new laws to govern emerging circumstances.
The parliament must introduce laws that govern specific associations and the contracts arising amidst them. It is practically impossible to enact laws for every eventuality because unforeseen circumstances, relations, issues, or technology might crop up. These might not have been catered for and it might be very difficult for the law to regulate them. The court is therefore left to interpret the governing laws to find solutions to the ensuing disputes. This clearly shows how the 1818 law of contract was depicted and the level at which contract law will remain in the probable future.
Even though the scope and variability of the prescribed agreements incessantly upsurge and advance, the universal doctrines of the contract law will always stand their validity. However, in the future new systems could be introduced to create a standard agreement and this should be derived from the contracting parties’ affiliations and nature. For instance, companies that operate in a similar market might be compelled to have their dealings under an isolated agreement.
References
Christie, R. H. (1994). The law of contract. Petersburg, VA: Butterworths.
Collins, H. (2003). The law of contract. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liuzzo, A. L. (2010). Essentials of business law seventh edition. Boston: McGraw Hill.
O’Sullivan, J. & Hilliard, J. (2010). The law of contract. London, UK: Oxford University Press.
Richards, P. (2007). Law of contract. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Longman.