The Law of Contract

Abstract

The law of contract is frequently the first ‘case law’ subject to which students are introduced when they commence their legal studies. The main reason for this is that contracts affect the general public more than most areas of law and arise daily in business and commercial life. When land or buildings are transferred, the contract is the most important stage in the process. The sheer number of agreements entered into leads to disputes which need to be resolved by one means or another. The ‘golden age’ of the law of contract was in the Nineteenth Century when its major principles were evolved on free market ideologies.