CONTRACTS
SEMINARSKI RAD
TRAVNIK, februar,2017
SVEUILITE/UNIVERZITET VITEZ VITEZ
FAKULTET PRAVNIH NAUKA
CONTRACTS
SEMINARSKI RAD
CONTENT...............................................................................................3
1. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................2
2. CONTRACTS......................................................................................3
2.1. THE OFFER..................................................................................4
2.2. THE ACCEPTANCE....................................................................6
3. CONCLUSION....................................................................................8
4. LITERATURE.....................................................................................9
1. INTRODUCTION
The law of contract is the body of legal rules governing the conclusion and
consequences of contracts. It defines the basis and requirements of contractual
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liability, as well as the rights and duties of the parties. Moreover, it regulates the
breach of contract and provides remedies for such breach. Finally, it governs the
termination of contractual obligations.
These rules, along with the law of delict and law of enrichment, fall under the
law of obligations, which is a category of the law of patrimony, forming part of
private law, which is fundamentally concerned with defining, protecting and
balancing legitimate individual interests. However, the classification of the law of
contract into private law is necessarily qualified by the increasing degree to which
private law and public law have come to overlap.
Contract is probably the most familiar legal concept in our society because it
is so central to the essence of our political, economic, and social life. In common
parlance, contract is used interchangeably with agreement, bargain, undertaking, or
deal.1 So commonplace is the concept of contract, and our freedom to make contracts
with each other, that it is difficult to imagine a time when contracts were rare, when
peoples everyday associations with one another were not freely determined.
2. CONTRACTS
1 http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/the-law-sales-and-
marketing/s11-introduction-to-contract-law.html
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obligations in jurisdictions of the civil law tradition. Contract law concerns the rights
and duties that arise from agreements. A contract arises when the parties agree that
there is an agreement. Formation of a contract generally requires an offer,
acceptance, consideration, and a mutual intent to be bound. Each party to a contract
must have capacity to enter the agreement. Minors, intoxicated persons, and those
under a mental affliction may have insufficient capacity to enter a contract.2
Once a contract has been made, that contract is as binding upon the parties as
any statute or any other law, and one party cannot withdraw without additional
agreement by the other party or parties.
Most people make a number of contracts during each day. Every cab ride,
purchase of a grocery item, use of a soft drink machine, etc. It does not matter that
these contracts are oral, or are based on gestures or even a course of conduct.
- Competent parties
- Mutual agreement
- Consideration
- Legality4
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enforceability (valid or unenforceable, void or voidable). A valid contract meets all
legal requirements and can be enforced by either party. An unenforceable contract
does not meet one or more legal requirements and cannot be enforced by either party.
For example: promises to make a gift (no consideration). A void contact has no
validity and cannot be enforced by either party. Examples are illegal agreements
made under threat or physical force. A voidable contract is binding on only one of the
parties. The other party has the option to withdraw from the contract or enforce it.
Examples are contracts made by minors and contracts made under under mental
duress.6
Under the law, only a person who is legally competent has the power to make
a binding contract and can be held to any promises contained therein. Persons who
may be considered to be legally incompetent include minors, insane persons, and,
sometimes under specified circumstances, intoxicated persons.7
The simplest way to form an express contract begins with a formal offer. This
offer may be transmitted by acts or words, spoken or written, directly to the offeree,
or in conversation, through the mails, by wire, by messenger, or through any medium
whatsoever.
Requirements of an offer:
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- It must indicate a clear intent to make a contract
- It must be sufficiently definite so that a court can determine the actual intent
of the parties
- It must be communicated to the other party
The offer should contain the fundamental ingredients of the contract; then
acceptance by the offeree will bind the deal.
Things generally not offers are: opinions, plans, requests for bids, invitations
to deal, social invitations, price lists, preliminary negotitations, and statements of
future intent (I plan to sell my stock). Similarly, general advertisements, catalogs,
brochures, and announcments are usually not offers because:
If an offer does not specify a period of time during which it is to remain open,
it expires after the passage of a reasonable time. What constitutes reasonable time
depends on the implied intention of the offeror as shown by the property or goods
offered, customs of the trade or business, and the like. An offer to sell or buy
perishable goodss, such as fresh fruits or vegetables, or goods having an unstable or
fluctuating market, such as stock or other securities, is generally held not to remain
open as long as an offer to sell or buy real estate, a far more stable item.8
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Acceptance is a promise or act on the part of an offeree indicating a
willingness to be bound by the terms and conditions contained in an offer.9 In other
words, acceptance occurs when an offeree agrees to be mutually bound to the terms
of the contract by giving consideration, or something of value like money, to seal the
deal.10
9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offer_and_acceptance
10 http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-acceptance-in-contract-law-
definition-rules-examples.html
11 http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/acceptance
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Some courts hold that a unilateral offer is accepted by a clear commencement
to perform the act requested.
Since the offeror may withdraw his/her offer (and promise), however, the
offeree should confirm acceptance and thereby bind the contract as a bilateral
contract.
a) The offeror, observing the offeree acting in response to the offer, says
nothing;
b) The parties mutually agree that silence means acceptance; or
c) In previous dealings, the parties have considered silence to be acceptance.12
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3. CONCLUSION
In this essay I wrote about contracts. Contracts are important part of law in any
country and they represent a voluntary arrangement between two or more parties. In
this essay I mentioned some general stuff about contracts like definition, elements of
contracts, offer and acceptance. Definition of contracts is: A contract is a voluntary
arrangement between two or more parties that is enforceable by law as a binding
legal agreement. Contracts are present in every aspect of business, education, health
etc. We saw trough this essay the importance of contracts because it protects every
participant in it by law. Every human being is going to sign a lot of contracts in it's
life, so I think it is very important that they learn at least some basic facts about
contracts.
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4. LITERATURE
Book:
Web sites:
- http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/the-law-sales-and-marketing/s11-
introduction-to-contract-law.html (05.02.2017)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract (05.02.2017)
- http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-acceptance-in-contract-law-
definition-rules-examples.html (05.02.2017)
- http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/acceptance (05.02.2017)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offer_and_acceptance (05.02.2017)
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