Contract law is a central part of legal systems all over theworld. It is especially important in international business, where the parties try to specify all the parts of their agreement in a clear written contract so that differences of law and custom between their countries can be avoided. It is sometimes said that some societies are much more 'contractual' than others. For example, in the United States people are accustomed to signing written contracts connected with daily life. Some people even draw up a contract with a girlfriend or boyfriend when they start living together in the hope of reducing arguments if they part later.
On the other hand, Japanese people rarely even sign contracts of employment when they take a new job, believing that custom and social obligation will be enough to resolve any differences.
2. Why is contract very important in peoples lives?
3. Do you make a contract very often?
Task IV
1. Do you know that many everyday transactions are contracts?
Read the text about them.
transaction - ; ; ( );
trust -, ; ;
common sense - ;
to be in breach of contract = to break the agreement - ;
to claim - ; ; ;
to win an action - ;
contractor - ; ; ;
8) to declare - ; ; ; ;
Not all contracts are written. Most contracts do not need to be in writing and many are only made orally. There are many kinds of unwritten agreements between people which the law of most countries describes as contracts. They may continue buying and selling things for years by relying on trust and common sense, and if sometimes there is a disagreement - for example, a supplier fails to deliver goods by the time he said he would - they manage to deal with the problem simply by discussion. However, if the disagreement becomes so serious that they cannot resolve it, they may decide it is necessary to take legal action. One of the most common kinds of legal action is to claim that a contract has existed and that one of them is in breach of contract (has broken the agreement). To win such an action it is necessary to show that the agreement can indeed be described as a contract.
There are many everyday transactions which most people never think of as contracts. Buying food, clothes, taking a bus ride, having a hair-cut are all examples of contracts. When you buy a newspaper you simply pick up the paper, pay the price and walk away. But suppose something unusual happens - perhaps, you discover that the newspaper is not today's but last week's; or there are some pages missing. You may then start to think about your rights. In fact, the simple purchase of a newspaper can indeed be a contract: without writing anything down, maybe without even speaking, you agreed to buy a certain item from a certain person at a certain price.
The problem with unwritten contracts is that it may be very difficult to show evidence of the agreement you made. Can you prove that you bought the newspaper where you did, and not somewhere else? Can you prove how much you paid for it? If the seller claims that you agreed to buy an old newspaper, can you disprove his claim?
Of course, problems of evidence can arise even when there is a detailed written agreement. A court of law may decide that the contract consists not just of the written document you possess but includes things that were said but never written down. The contract may even include things that the contractors understood but never talked about. Sometimes an agreement turns out to be a contract even though the people who made it did not realize this at the time. And sometimes people make agreements which they think are contracts, but when they try to take legal action the court declares that no contract was ever made.
