对价在合同法中的作用(英文).docx

IntroductionSomething of value must be provided by each party to the contract in order to induce the other to sign the contract. This exchange of value can be called consideration in the field of Law. The value exchanged can take the form of money, physical objects, services, promised actions, endurance from a future action, and much more (Beatson, 2002, p88). The purpose of this essay is to find out why consideration is important in contract and whether there is any alternative for it. The essay is organised as follows: the definition of consideration, the rules of consideration, the importance of consideration and its relationship with the promissory estoppel. What is mainly argued in this essay is that consideration plays an indispensable role in contract despite some problems it has and it cannot be replaced by other doctrines like promissory estoppel (Mayne, 2009, p4).Main BodyDefinitionAccording to Currie v Misa (1875), consideration was defined as: a valid consideration is consisted of either a loss to the promisee or a benefit to the promisor. However, this definition has some deficiencies when contracts are based just on an exchange of promises. For instance, if A promises to buy a car from B for ￡2000 and B promises to sell the car to A for ￡2000, the consideration in this contract presents itself by the exchange of promises. The definition thus becomes meaningless. Therefore, a preferable definition was summed up by Sir Frederick Pollock(1950): “An act or forbearance of one party, or the promise thereof, is the price for which the promises of the other is bought, and the promises thus given for value is enforceable.” This definition was approved to be more representative than the concept of benefit and loss by the House of Lords (cited in Richards, 2011, p.61-62).The rules of considerationAlthough the definition of consideration is direct and simple, it is wrong to regard it as a single coherent principle. Actually the doctrine of consideration as we know