英美合同法-讲义.doc

《A Brief Introduction To The Anglo-American Law of Contract》 讲义 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CONTRACT LAW 第一章 导论 Many students wrongly imagine that the law of contract is difficult in that it will deal with complicated commercial situations. They also think of contracts as complicated written documents only entered into on rare occasions such as accepting the offer of a job, renting or buying a house, or engaging in a major business transaction. In fact, most of us enter into contracts every day and the vast majority of them are less complicated. Buying a bus or train ticket, a cup of coffee or a book are all example of contracts and we hardly ever bother to record these affairs in writing, negotiate them in detail. Although it is usually fairly easy to recognize a contract once formed, it is by no means such an easy task to describe in general terms what a contract is. It is usually, perhaps universally, said that a contract is a legally enforceable agreement and that it is formed by the process of “Offer and Acceptance.” It is also said that the agreement must be supported by “consideration” for it is the presence of consideration that makes the agreement enforceable. The contract law course taught in this semester usually deal with the “general principles of contract”. We will not concern with those more advance fields such as contracts of employment, of the sale of goods between business and to consumers, of international sales, of the disposal or retention of intellectual property rights, of shipping, of insurance, and of construction deals. [Aims and Requirements] This chapter introduces some basic theory in Common Law system on contract law. The section A begins our survey with the definition of contract, which introduces a number of themes including the basis of contract and the conditions for enforcement of promises. Section B presents an overview of some theoretical issues and provides some very basic information that oft