Principles of Irish Contract Law is a new addition to the "Principles" series. This book is the ideal source for undergraduate law students and all those interested in the study of contract law. Although this book is student-focused, outlining and explaining the main tenets of Irish Contract law, many legal practitioners will undoubtedly find this text as a great source to re-acquaint themselves with the subject. Principles of Irish Contract Law emphasises the theory behind contract law, demystifying difficult concepts and providing a policy-driven introduction to this challenging subject. The key cases are fully discussed in a manner which encourages students to approach the subject from a critical standpoint. Cases from other jurisdictions, especially the United States, are also discussed. The book is highly accessible and combines an informal analytical style with useful learning features such as diagrams and tables. The final two chapters focus on study and exam skills and include worked problem answers.

The ongoing debate on the harmonisation of European contract law has metamorphosed into an important recognition: that none of the existing national systems of contract law, even the most 'modern,' have been able to keep pace with the extensive and radical changes in the world which contract law must reflect. The nineteen outstanding contributors to this deeply insightful book concur in envisioning a fundamentally new systematic concept of contract law that, while preserving the essential 'architecture' of the existing European codes, would nonetheless find cogent ways to integrate such modern developments as mass transactions, chains and networks of contracts, regulation of markets and contracts to protect consumers, and service and long-term contracts into an optional European code. The book is organised along three major avenues: the systematic arrangement of a contract law code - how it deals with core questions of formation and performance or breach of contract, such as mistake and misrepresentation, standard contract terms, and remedies in the case of breach of contract; the apparent necessity to merge consumer contract law (i.e., such issues as product safety and liability, warranties, and consumer debt and insolvency) with traditional core contract law concepts; and, the importance to substantive contract law of the pre-contractual phase, in which information duties are becoming steadily more paramount. The authors' perspectives cover a wide range of jurisdictions, including new EU Member States. The book's overall commitment to an integration of comparative law, EC law, and the debate on European codification gives it both an authority and an immediacy that offer interested practitioners and academics fertile ground for the development of a new model of contract law that is more than a common denominator of what has been in force so far, a model which might serve as a basis for Europe-wide and perhaps even worldwide discussion.

This book charts the significant increase in Britain over the last 25 years in the deployment of contract as a regulatory mechanism across a broad spectrum of social relationships. Since Labour came to power in 1997 the trend has accelerated, the use of contract spreading beyond the sphere of economics into public administration and social policy. The 'new public contracting' is the term given this distinctive mode of governance, characterized by the delegation of contractual powers and responsibilities to public agencies in regulatory frameworks preserving central government controls and powers of intervention. In many cases the contracts are not legally enforceable, their power as regulatory instruments deriving from the hierarchical authority relations in which they are embedded. Examples of the new public contracting include the regulation of relationships between government departments through Public Service Agreements and Framework Documents; the regulation of relationships between individual citizens and the state through Youth Offender Contracts, Parenting Contracts, and Jobseekers Agreements; the funding of public infrastructure projects through Public Private Partnerships; and the restructuring of key public service sectors such as health, social care and education through contracts in competitive quasi-markets, reflecting the Government's privatization agenda. The book critically analyzes and evaluates such contractual arrangements with reference to theories of relational contract and responsive regulation. It argues that while in business and other private relations contract routinely enables the parties to regulate and adjust their on-going relationships to mutual benefit, this is often not the case in the new public contracting. In many instances crucial elements of trust, voluntariness, and reciprocity are shown to be lacking. This and other weaknesses in regulatory design are likely to impede the attainment of the Government's policy objectives. The book demonstrates the problems of ineffectiveness and lack of legitimacy generally associated with this mode of regulation, and specifies institutional and other conditions that need to be satisfied for the more responsive governance of these public service functions.

After an extended period in which the European Community has merely nibbled at the edges of national contract law, the bite of a 'European contract law' has lately become more pronounced. Many areas of law, from competition and consumer law to gender equality law, are now the subject of determined efforts at harmonisation, though they are perhaps often seen as peripheral to mainstream commercial contract law. Despite continuing doubts about the constitutional competence of the Commission to embark on further harmonisation in this area, European contract law is now taking shape with the Commission prompting a debate about what it might attempt. A central aspect of this book is the report of a remarkable survey carried out by the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law in collaboration with Clifford Chance, which sought the views of European businesses about the advantages and disadvantages of further harmonisation. The final report of this survey brings much needed empirical data to a debate that has thus far lacked clear evidence of this sort. The survey is embedded in a range of original and up-to-date essays by leading European contract scholars reviewing recent developments, questioning progress so far and suggesting areas where further analysis and research will be required

Recently the contract section of the German Civil Code was amended after one hundred years of un-altered existence. The German Law of Contract, radically recast, enlarged, and re-written since its first edition, now details and explains for the first time these changes for the benefit of Anglophone lawyers. One hundred and twenty translated contract decisions also make this work a unique source-book for students, academics, and practitioners. Along with its companion volume, The German Law of Torts, the two volumes provide one of the fullest accounts of the German Law of Obligations available in the English language. Through its method of presentation of German law, the book represents an original contribution to the art of comparison. An additional feature of the Contract volume is the way in which it reveals the growing impact which European Directives are having upon the traditional, liberal, contract model, thereby bringing German and English law closer to each other, especially in the area of consumer protection.

Over the past 30 years, there has been considerable research on the political economy of reform. Yet, despite this, little is known about strategies for managing the politics of change - moving from a bad to a better equilibrium. Part of the challenge of studying this issue stems from the difficulty of obtaining detailed, so-called "blow-by-blow" information on actual reform processes. From this type of information, one can discern and cull practical lessons on strategy, which by its very nature is about dealing with political barriers or problems as they crop up during the implementation process. This study looks at the sequence of events that ultimately led to the passage of legislation that markedly altered the rules that govern public procurement in the Philippines. The study attempts to distill operationally useful lessons for managing the politics of a reform process.

Over the last few years increasing attention continues to be paid to the Principles of European Contract Law (otherwise known as the Principles, the Lando Principles or PECL). The drafters of the Principles presented their work in the form of articles accompanied by explanatory notes, averring that the main purpose of the instrument is to serve as a basis for a future European contract law. Can the Lando Principles, as their drafters claim, indeed offer an acceptable basis for a future European contract law? Dr. Busch, both scholar and practitioner, offers a detailed analysis, in response to this question, of the contractual aspects of indirect representation (Arts. 3:301-304 PECL). He evaluates these provisions in the light of Dutch, German, and English law, as well as with reference to the Geneva Convention on Agency in the International Sale of Goods. To introduce this important comparative study and make the background as complete as possible, this book devotes separate chapters to thorough discussions of indirect representation in Dutch law (middellijke vertegenwoordiging Arts. 7:419-421 Dutch Civil Code), in German law (mittelbare Stellvertretung) and in the English doctrine of the undisclosed principal. Lawyers in Europe and elsewhere who must deal with contract law in any connection, will find this thoroughly researched and well-thought-out text to be indispensable. Its value as a scholarly analysis can only grow with the coming years. D. Busch (b. 1974) graduated (cum laude) in Dutch law from the University of Utrecht in 1997. He attained the title of Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford (St. John's College) in 1998, and defended his dissertation in 2002 at the University of Utrecht. Until the end of 2001 he was attached as lecturer and researcher to the Molengraaff Institute of Private Law in Utrecht. Since 2002 he has worked as an attorney-at-law for the law office of De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in Amsterdam. He has also been an honorary senior lecturer at the Molengraaff Institute since 2004.

To provide valuable legal service to persons in today's Europe, practitioners must be conversant in both national and transnational law. At the European level, the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) are an increasingly important element of contract law, together with national contract law, as contained in Civil Codes and various national statute. Accordingly, Kluwer Law International has initiated a series of volumes, under the direction of Prof. Hondius of the University of Utrecht, comparing PECL with the most important European legal systems. This volume on Italian law is the second in the series. Using a straightforward comparative method, the editors' analysis not only reveals a significant area of convergence between the PECL and Italian contract law, but also highlights the main differences between the two bodies of rules. The book provides complete texts, with annotations, of the PECL and the corresponding Italian rules. The presentation proceeds as follows: general provisions (scope of application, general duties, terminology); formation of contracts (general provisions, offer and acceptance, liability for negotiations); authority of agents (general provisions, direct and indirect representation); validity; interpretation; contents and effects; performance; non-performance and remedies in general; and, particular remedies for non-performance (right to performance, withholding performance, termination of the contract, price reduction, damages and interest). The book is a valuable handbook and guide for both foreign and Italian lawyers. For non-Italian lawyers, be they practitioners or academics, it provides a concise but complete and up-to-date outline of current Italian contract law, organized on the basis of a system (PECL) with which many European lawyers are familiar. For Italian lawyers, it offers a clearer insight into a wider European legal contract system whose importance in the evolution of a common European private law is growing rapidly.

The book provides a comparative analysis of the law relating to remedies for breach of contract. It examines different remedies such as specific performance and damages,doing so from the viewpoint of different legal systems, principally the English, American, German, French and Israeli. Each essay is written by a recognised specialist in his or her own field. Topics covered include the relationship between substantive rights and contract remedies, the recent reforms of the law relating to breach of contract in Germany, the remedies in the context of a third party beneficiary and the extent to which a claimant can choose the remedy which he or she deems to be the most appropriate. The book also makes use of a range of techniques, particularly economic analysis, when examining the legal rules. The book contains an introductory essay written by the editors and an essay by Professor Friedman, which deals with the relationship between substantive rights and contract remedies.

This is the paperback edition of a book first published in 2003, which was received with warmth and critical acclaim by scholars of jurisprudence and contract theory. Liberal theory of contract is traditionally associated with the view according to which contract law can be explained simply as a mechanism for the enforcement of promises. The book bucks this trend by offering a theory of contract law based on a careful philosophical investigation of not only the similarities, but also the much-overlooked differences between contract and promise. Drawing on an analysis of a range of issues pertaining to the moral underpinnings of promissory and contractual obligations, the relationships in the context of which they typically feature, and the nature of the legal and moral institutions that support them, the book argues for the abandonment of the over-simplified notion that the law can systematically replicate existing moral or social institutions or simply enforce the rights or the obligations to which they give rise, without altering these institutions in the process and while leaving their intrinsic qualities intact. In its place the book offers an intriguing thesis concerning not only the relationship between contract and promise, but also the distinct functions and values that underlie contract law and explain contractual obligation. In turn, this thesis is shown to have an important bearing on theoretical and practical issues such as the choice of remedy for breach of contract, and broader concerns of political morality such as the appropriate scope of the freedom of contract and the role of the state in shaping and regulating contractual activity. The book's arguments on such issues, while rooted in distinctly liberal principles of political morality, often produce very different conclusions to those traditionally associated with liberal theory of contract, thus lending it a new lease of life in the face of its traditional as well as contemporary critiques.

The Employment Contract: Legal Principles, Drafting, and Interpretation provides a detailed analysis of the content of the employment contract. It explains the way in which the general principles of contract law operate in respect of the employment contract, discusses the significance of implied terms in interpreting the employment contract, and includes guidance on the drafting of effective employment contracts. Offering a balance between a reliable guide to the current law and an analysis of how the employment contract might develop, the book will be of equal interest to the practitioner and the academic.

This 2005 examination of twelve case studies about mistake, fraud and duties to inform reveals significant differences about how contract law works in thirteen European legal systems and, despite the fact that the solutions proposed are often similar, what divergent values underlie the legal rules. Whereas some jurisdictions recognise increasing duties to inform in numerous contracts so that the destiny of mistake and fraud (classical defects of consent) may appear to be uncertain, other jurisdictions continue to refuse such duties as a general rule or fail to recognise the need to protect one of the parties where there is an imbalance in bargaining power or information. Avoiding preconceptions as to where and why these differences exist, this book first examines the historical origins and development of defects of consent, then considers the issues from a comparative and critical standpoint.

How often our actions go awry because our perceptions are at odds with reality! This book examines the legal issues that arise when we seek to avoid the untoward consequences of an action by claiming that our perception was flawed. We all make mistakes. Some have unfortunate consequences: we might overpay a debt or make an unfavourable contract, or we might be sued or accused of a crime as a result of our mistake.
Claims to alleviation on the grounds of mistake are likely to arise wherever the law prescribes a state of mind (some kind of intent) as a prerequisite for the application of a legal rule. This book asks when the fact that a person made a mistake should entitle them to alleviation. This may involve the intention to enter into a contract or a payment, in which case a person could seek its reversal, or it might involve the intent to commit a tort or crime, in which case they could seek forgiveness for the offence. Farnsworth defines 'alleviating' mistakes as those which entitle a person to relief from untoward consequences of their mistake.
There is no general 'law of mistake', and despite their similarities, few discussions of mistake in one setting pause to consider mistakes in other contexts. The goals of fields as disparate as contracts and criminal law are very different: how do these differences affect the treatment of mistakes? Farnsworth sets out a new taxonomy of mistakes. His analysis reveals that over the past century, there has been a remarkable increase in the receptivity of courts and scholars to claims for both reversal and forgiveness--a waxing of alleviating mistakes.

Ten Commandments of Better Contracting provides a fresh look at management of supply chains with a particular focus on contracting for construction and related goods and services. With the objective of getting more out of contracts, this book draws on recent research, extensive professional and practical experience, and even trial and error in testing contracting innovations. The book explores issues, such as games played, proven solutions to common problems, the importance of business relationships, trust, and other issues not typically addressed in books on this topic. In readable style, every chapter focuses on real-world problems and offers suggestions that help improve the performance of next and future contracts. The book outlines ten basic rules (""commandments"") for improving contract performance. The author illustrates these different techniques with cartoons, icons, and case studies. Each of the first 10 chapters addresses one of these commandments. The closing chapter presents a successful contracting strategy that applies these commandments in a cohesive approach. This proven strategy has yielded better results than industry norms when intelligently applied. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the contracting environment including basic legal principles; Chapters 2 and 3 address contract strategies; Chapters 4 through 7 focus on contract award; Chapters 8 and 9 address contract administration issues; and Chapter 10 focuses on dispute resolution.

This collection of essays, derived from an international workshop, explores the significance of implicit understandings and tacit expectations of the parties to different kinds of contractual agreements, ranging from simple discrete transactions to long-term associational agreements such as those formed in companies. An interdisciplinary and comparative approach is used to investigate how the law comprehends and gives effect to the these implicit dimensions of contracts. The significance of this enquiry is found not only in relation to the interpretation of contracts in many different contexts, but more fundamentally in how social practices involved in making contracts should be analysed and comprehended.

Anglo-American private law has been a far more complex phenomenon than has been usually recognized. Attempts to reduce it to a single explanatory principle, or to a precisely classified or categorized map, scheme, or diagram, are liable to distort the past by omitting or marginalizing material inconsistent with proposed principles or schemes. This study will be of importance to all who are interested in property, tort, contract, unjust enrichment, legal reasoning, legal method, the history of the common law, and the relation between legal theory and legal history.

Anglo-American private law has been a far more complex phenomenon than has been usually recognized. Attempts to reduce it to a single explanatory principle, or to a precisely classified or categorized map, scheme, or diagram, are liable to distort the past by omitting or marginalizing material inconsistent with proposed principles or schemes. This study will be of importance to all who are interested in property, tort, contract, unjust enrichment, legal reasoning, legal method, the history of the common law, and the relation between legal theory and legal history.

Sometimes a breach of contract causes loss to a third party. This book takes a comparative approach to the question when the third party can recover that loss directly,and when the promisee can recover it. The second issue has arisen in carriage of goods, bailment, insurance and agency, and is becoming increasingly significant in construction law, as the recent decision in Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd v. Panatown Ltd shows. The principal aim is to clarify whether and when a promisee is allowed to recover damages on behalf of a third party. The book also examines the impact of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 and recent judicial decisions seeking to increase the protection of the interest in the performance of the contract. From the Foreword by Lord Goff of Chieveley: "For those lawyers who, in their teaching of contract law or of the law of damages, or in their work as practising lawyers, have to consider problems arising in this difficult field, this book will provide a context which is both stimulating and illuminating."

The topic of harmonisation of European private law, and European contract law in particular, is rapidly gaining in importance. The topic is not only widely studied by academics and students all over Europe (and even beyond), it is also on the political agenda of the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council. The most important achievement in this field is no doubt the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), drafted by the Commission on European Contract Law. The European Commission considers the PECL to be a serious option for further harmonisation of European contract law within the European Union. This publication is the first to provide a systematic overview of the PECL in comparison with Dutch contract law as a whole. The book is concise and because of its structure it is easily accessible. Amongst the contributors there are many highly distinguished contract law specialists. It may be used at universities in courses on Comparative Law, European Private Law, and European Contract Law. It may also be used by international practitioners, foreign students, and academics interested in Dutch contract law who do not have access to Dutch contract law because they have no knowledge of the Dutch language. Last but not least, the book will be of interest to all jurists interested in the harmonisation of the European Private Law.

This book examines the nature of pre-contractual liability in English and French law and the extent to which the arguments of risk determine the imposition of liability during the negotiation process. The book is divided into three parts. Dr Giliker first examines potential contractual liability, followed by a study of liability outside contract, namely in the fast-growing law of restitution, "enrichissement sans cause, tort, delict and the equitable doctrine of estoppel. The final part deals with proposals for reform and draws a number of conclusions, highlighting, in particular, the policy influences on the law. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of both systems, Dr Giliker reviews the relevant legal authority and academic literature in this field, focusing on the difficult, but practically important, question of liability for services performed in anticipation of a contract. The book offers a comprehensive picture of the current legal position in England and France and a fresh perspective on this commercially significant area of law, which is likely to be of relevance to anyone interested in this area of law or in obligations law in general.

This study is an examination of the purposes, efficiency, and efficacy of legal regulation of contracts that draws on economics, sociology, and law to suggest how legal regulation fails and how it might be improved.

This book explores the evolution of contract law in England, France, Germany and Italy during the last one hundred years from the perspectives of law and its context. Dr Niglia's treatment of contract law is fundamentally distinct from that in legal comparativist studies. It reassesses classical descriptive, analytical and normative positions and thoroughly submits that contract law is not a legal abstraction. It is part of a more concrete story of societal developments, the reflection of each polity's legal and political order. In particular, the book discovers an interaction between the core area of contract law, the law of standard form contracts, and the socio-economic and political history of the past century of England, France, Germany and Italy. As such, it is argued that the law has been strongly influenced by defining state 'choices' about the citizenry's welfare and security. The key argument is provided that during the course of the last decade--as a result of the epoch-making impact of Community 're-regulatory' processes--a major transformation of the legal structure has been gaining ground, alas yet unnoticed in legal comparative studies. In the first instance, the book engages those interested in contract law and its 'Europeanisation', in the law of standard form contracts, and in comparative and economico-legal aspects of contract law. However, this book will also interest the reader expert in Community law, even if unconcerned with contract law. It is a studious investigation into one of the 'underworlds' of which European integration is composed. It looks at certain aspects which are central to Community consumer policy, and it presents an in-depth analysis of themaking and enforcement of the directive on unfair terms in consumer contracts.

This book deals with major contributions by the English Courts in the Twentieth Century to three areas of Contract Law: the variation of contracts by subsequent agreement, the extent to which contracts can benefit or bind third parties, and the distinction between four types of contractual terms: conditions, warranties, intermediate (or innominate) terms and fundamental terms.

Discussion of labour law issues from a regulatory perspective is often heavily influenced by certain types of economic analysis and tends to support deregulation of labour markets. While many European countries and the EU itself are committed to ideals of labour standards expressed in such documents as the Charter of Social Rights, there is a noticeable hesitation in enacting these rights due to the fear of adverse economic consequences. The essays in this volume aim to redress the balance in the contemporary regulatory debate by embracing other interdisciplinary perspectives and scrutinizing carefully the justifications for and against special regulation for employment contracts. The book examines labour law as the regulation of a particular kind of contractual relationship, that is, contract of employment, and of the institutional framework, including trade unions, collective bargaining, managerial hierarchies, government departments and agencies, within which it operates. This perspective differs from that of most contemporary studies of labour law by emphasising its public, regulatory character, rather than its origin in private law. Thirty-one expert papers explore a range of issues affecting employment regulation and protection in international, EU and English law, including labour law and economic theory, EU discrimination law, collective bargaining and consultation, regulation of public services, stakeholding, labour market deregulation, the impact of competition law, trade union rights, transfer of undertakings, contract law, unfair dismissal and self-regulation. Together the essays comprise a fundamental reassessment of the need for special regulation of the employment relation. This collection of essays arose from the W.G. Hart Legal Workshop, held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, in 1999.

Standard contracts published for use in the construction industry are complex documents and contain many inter-related clauses. This book will enable the user to find easily not just the main references dealing with a particular topic, but also the related clauses and references. In facing any contractual problem, it is the practitioner's primary duty to discover all the relevant references and make a judgement, which is not possible until all references have been covered. This book identifies the main topics which a practitioner will encounter, giving all the references to each topic which may be scattered throughout the document and a one-line signpost to indicate the contents of each reference.