This book approaches contract law from its social, political and economic context and by doing so aims to broaden understanding and appreciation of the subject at a level which is suitable for students. Legal and business perspectives are introduced, as are some sociological and economic ideas and influences.

The emergence of an EU contract law is one of the most significant legal developments in Europe today. Exploring the origins and evolution of the discipline, from the Sales Directive to the Common Frame of Reference, the book advances a framework for the further harmonization of contract law that embraces diversity and pluralism.

Contract Law: Cases and Materials presents a selection of well-chosen cases and illuminating commentary ideal for introducing students to the study of contract law in Australia. Developed to accompany Stewart, Swain and Fairweather's Contract Law: Principles and Context, this casebook maintains the accessibility of the principles text while providing the depth and analysis of topics required to learn contract law. Following the structure of the principles text, this text explores areas not traditionally covered in other casebooks, such as resolving disputes, preparing to make a contract, preliminary agreements, and interpreting contracts. Each chapter also briefly explores contracts in international contexts. Containing well-chosen, carefully curated cases and extracts, Contract Law: Cases and Materials takes a practical approach to student learning and integrates rich pedagogy to build critical thinking and analysis skills, making it an invaluable resource for contract law students.

Commercial contract law is in every sense optional given the choice between legal systems and law and arbitration. Its 'doctrines' are in fact virtually all default rules. Contract Law Minimalism advances the thesis that commercial parties prefer a minimalist law that sets out to enforce what they have decided - but does nothing else. The limited capacity of the legal process is the key to this 'minimalist' stance. This book considers evidence that such minimalism is indeed what commercial parties choose to govern their transactions. It critically engages with alternative schools of thought, that call for active regulation of contracts to promote either economic efficiency or the trust and co-operation necessary for 'relational contracting'. The book also necessarily argues against the view that private law should be understood non-instrumentally (whether through promissory morality, corrective justice, taxonomic rationality, or otherwise). It sketches a restatement of English contract law in line with the thesis.

This informative and accessible book reviews the core concepts of contract law and theory from an Anglo-American perspective. Larry A. DiMatteo deftly analyses the key principles, rules and frameworks which have shaped Anglo-American contract law, as well as highlighting important legislative acts that have changed and modernised its development.

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 and‘architectureand’ 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: and• 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; and• 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 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 bookand’s commitment to an integration of comparative law, EC law, and the debate on European codification offers 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. This model may serve as a basis for Europe-wide and perhaps even worldwide discussion.

This book provides a counter-balance to the traditional focus on judicial decisions by exploring the contribution of legal scholars to the development of private law. In the book the work of a selection of leading scholars of contract law from across the common law world, ranging from Sir Jeffrey Gilbert (1674–1726) to Professor Brian Coote (1929–2019), is addressed by legal historians and current scholars in the field. The focus is on the nature of the work produced by the scholars in question, important influences on their work, and the impact which that work in turn had on thinking about contract law. The book also includes an introductory chapter and an afterword by Professor William Twining that explore connections between the scholars and recurrent themes. The process of subjecting contract law scholarship to sustained analysis provides new insights into the intellectual development of contract law and reveals the central role played by scholars in that process. And by focusing attention on the work of influential contract scholars, the book serves to emphasise the importance of legal scholarship to the development of the common law more generally.

This book examines national reports on contract law in each of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in order to provide a comparative analysis. It then establishes common principles, where possible, as well as a set of general “soft law” principles governing international commercial contracts in these countries. The importance of commercial transactions in the BRICS countries is rapidly growing, yet differences in contract law among these countries can lead to misunderstandings and disputes. The rapid development of the BRICS instruments (and the legal implications of their use) suggests the need to address common legal issues that could harm the continued development of the BRICS economies. Contract law represents one of the core areas in which this process can take place. Addressing the salient legal issues within the BRICS discourse requires a comprehensive, comparative approach that explores the different solutions provided by each member country, in order to identify similarities and convergences. This process may ultimately help to reduce the legal obstacles to, and indirect costs of, cross-border transactions by offering a transparent and predictable legal environment for any future attempt at adopting common legal instruments.

This comparative study of European and Chinese contract law opens a clear and practical way to identify and understand the differences between the two legal regimes. The author offers a detailed doctrinal comparison of the two systems of contract, focusing on the following fundamental elements: * the importance of socio-economic valuation in Chinese contract law; * the role of judicial interpretation; * pre-contractual liability - penalties for bad faith, disclosure versus concealment; * validity - mistake, fraud, threats, unfair bargaining power; * adaptation and termination - effect of registration and approval rules; * mandatory rules - good faith and fair dealing, the public interest; and * direct application of constitutional law to contracts. The book's special power lies in its extraordinarily thorough comparison of doctrines underlying specific provisions of such instruments as the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China (CLC), the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China (GPCL), the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), and the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), as well as analysis of judicial cases.

Exploring the advantages and disadvantages of codifying contract law, this book considers the question from the perspectives of both civil and common law systems, referring in detail to issues of international and consumer law. With contributions from leading international scholars, the chapters present a range of opinions on the virtues of codification, encouraging further debate on this topic. The book commences with a discussion on the internationalization imperative for codification of contract law. It then turns to regional issues, exploring first codification attempts in the European Union and Japan, and then issues relevant to codification in the common law jurisdictions of Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The collection concludes with two chapters which consider the need to draw upon both private and comparative international law perspectives to inform any codification reforms. This book will be of interest to international and comparative contract law academics, as well as regulators and policy-makers.