1. Introduction to the law of contract

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Robert Merkin ◽  
Séverine Saintier ◽  
Jill Poole
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Electronic Communications ◽  
European Directives ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Common European Sales Law

Course-focused and comprehensive, Poole’s Textbook on Contract Law provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. Contracts are legally enforceable agreements intended for planned exchanges that are regulated by the principles of contract law. This chapter looks at some of the main theories underpinning the development of English contract law and examines the nature of contractual liability. Contractual obligations arise largely from party agreement and this distinguishes contractual liability from liability in tort. Given the continued relevance of English law in a globalized world (in spite of the UK exiting the European Union), this chapter also briefly introduces the various attempts to produce a set of harmonized principles such as the Common European Sales Law, along with the impact of other international developments including the growth in e-commerce and electronic communications. Moreover, the chapter analyses the most significant European directives and their effect on the development of English contract law, especially in the context of consumer contracts. The implementation of these European directives has resulted in the introduction of the concept of ‘good faith’ into English contract law. Given the increasing importance of good faith as a concept, especially when in the context of ‘a relational contract’, the chapter gives detailed discussion on the scope of and application of good faith in performance of the contract. Finally, the chapter considers the implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive in a number of statutory instruments and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

1. Introduction to the law of contract

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Robert Merkin ◽  
Séverine Saintier
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Electronic Communications ◽  
European Directives ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Common European Sales Law

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. Contracts are legally enforceable agreements intended for planned exchanges that are regulated by the principles of contract law. This chapter looks at some of the main theories underpinning the development of English contract law and examines the nature of contractual liability. Contractual obligations arise largely from party agreement and this distinguishes contractual liability from liability in tort. Given the continued relevance of English law in a globalized world (and the fact that as of this date, the UK is still part of the European Union), this chapter also briefly introduces the various attempts to produce a set of harmonized principles such as the Common European Sales Law, along with the impact of other international developments including the growth in e-commerce and electronic communications. Moreover, the chapter analyses the most significant European directives and their effect on the development of English contract law, especially in the context of consumer contracts. The implementation of these European directives has resulted in the introduction of the concept of ‘good faith’ into English contract law. Given the increasing importance of good faith as a concept, the chapter gives detailed discussion on the scope of ‘good faith’, and whether there is an implied duty of good faith in performance. Finally, the chapter considers the implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive in a number of statutory instruments and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

6. Exemption clauses and unfair contract terms

2021 ◽  
pp. 227-271
Author(s):  
Robert Merkin ◽  
Séverine Saintier ◽  
Jill Poole
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Breach Of Contract ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Insurance Cover ◽  
Legislative Regulation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Unfair Terms ◽  
The Uk

Course-focused and comprehensive, Poole’s Textbook on Contract Law provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. A clause which seeks either to exclude a party’s liability for breach or to limit that liability to a specified amount is known as an exemption clause. It is also possible for exemption clauses to seek to exclude or limit the remedies which would otherwise be available for breach or seek to deny that any breach of contract or breach of a duty of care has occurred. Although such clauses can allocate risks between the parties and prevent duplicate insurance cover, both the courts and the Parliament in the UK have sought to control their use. An exemption clause is enforceable if the clause in question is incorporated as a term, covers the loss that has occurred in the circumstances in which it arose, and is not rendered unenforceable by either the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (B2B contracts) or Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (B2C contracts). This chapter examines the construction of exemption clauses as well as the legislative regulation of exemption clauses and, in the consumer context, unfair terms.

THE LAW APPLICABLE TO PRODUCT LIABILITY: THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW IN EUROPE AND CURRENT PROPOSALS FOR REFORM

2005 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kadner Graziano
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Present State ◽  
Product Liability ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Choice Of Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rome I

The choice of law-rules for contractual obligations is harmonized in the European Union and the system established by the Rome I-Convention has proved its merits.1 The choice of law rules for tortious or delictual liability, on the contrary, is still largely left to the national legislators and courts2 and they differ very much from one country to the other. Two Hague Conventions cover particular issues.3 Neither of them is in force in the UK.

scholarly journals THE LAW "ON CONSUMER RIGHTS" THE UK: RIGHTS, DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITY

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-144
Author(s):  
A. N. Surkov ◽  
S. V. Melnik ◽  
E. V. Chernykh
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
New Type ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk

In this article, one of the most urgent topics of the development of legislation on consumer rights protection in the UK is being considered. UK legislation on the protection of consumer rights, especially in connection with the forthcoming withdrawal of Britain from the European Union has a number of features. The law "On the Rights of Consumers", adopted in 2015, made it possible to analyze and highlight a number of features in the field of consumer protection in the UK, namely, the allocation of absolutely new standards applicable to the new type of services-digital content. By researching this topic, the author shows the emerging contradictions between the legislation of the European Union and the United Kingdom in the field of consumer protection, where the UK, against the backdrop of Brexit, analyzing the new Directives adopted by the European Union to retain a single legal space tends to unify the norms of the law "On the Rights of Consumers".

Part 2 National and Regional Reports, Part 2.4 Europe: Coordinated by Thomas Kadner Graziano, 51 United Kingdom: United Kingdom Perspectives on the Hague Principles: Beyond the European Union

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dickinson Andrew
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rome I ◽  
The Eu

This chapter highlights United Kingdom perspectives on the Hague Principles. On 31 January 2020, the UK ceased to be a member of the EU. Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement concluded between the UK and the EU, the UK will apply the Rome I Regulation to contracts concluded before the end of the transition period. The UK has taken a policy decision to continue to apply the Rome I Regulation to determine the law applicable to contractual obligations with respect to contracts concluded after the end of the transition period, and has adopted legislation to achieve that end. Following the ‘IP completion day’, UK courts will have no power to refer questions of law to the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) and will not be bound by decisions of the CJEU made after that date, although they ‘may have regard to’ such decisions. In the absence of a significant existing body of CJEU case law concerning the Rome I Regulation and its predecessor, the 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, UK courts will seek guidance from the existing body of local case law, which will continue to bind them in accordance with common law rules of precedent. In this enterprise, the Hague Principles, as an instrument adopted by the members of a well-respected international legal organization of which the UK is a long-standing member, may prove to be an influential tool, especially when addressing novel questions.

Product Liability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fairgrieve Duncan ◽  
Richard Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Strict Liability ◽  
Product Liability ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Financial Loss ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Product Liability is a recognised authority in the field and covers the product liability laws through which manufacturers, retailers, and others may be held liable to compensate persons who are injured, or who incur financial loss, when the products which they manufacture or sell are defective or not fit for their purpose. Product defects may originate in the production process, be one of design, or be grounded in a failure to issue an adequate warning or directions for safe use and practitioners advising business clients or claimants will find this book provides all the necessary information for practitioners to manage a product liability claim. This new edition has been fully updated to take account of 10 years of development in case law and regulation, and the increasing impact of cross-border and transnational sale of goods. The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down major rulings concerning the Product Liability Directive which affect the application of the Directive and national arrangements and Fairgrieve and Goldberg examines this in detail. For any legal practitioner operating in areas which require knowledge of European product liability law, an understanding of the impact of recent developments is essential and this work is an essential resource for practitioners working on product liability, sale of goods, personal injury and negligence. The work provides comprehensive coverage of the law of negligence as it applies to product liability, of the strict liability provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, and of the EU's Product Liability Directive on which the Act is based. Although the majority of cases involve pharmaceuticals and medical devices, in recent English cases the allegedly defective products have been as diverse as a child's buggy, an All Terrain Vehicle, and even a coffee cup. Many cases are brought as group actions, and the book examines the rights of those who are injured by defective products. As well as considering the perspective of the law as it has developed in the UK, this edition contains detailed discussion of case law from other jurisdictions including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Germany. The coverage in the work is complemented by a full analysis of issues which arise in transnational litigation involving problems of jurisdiction and the choice of laws.

1. Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Jack Beatson ◽  
Andrew Burrows ◽  
John Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Unjust Enrichment ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
And Function

This introductory chapter first considers the nature and function of contract. It then discusses the contractual obligations in English law; the content of the contract law as set out in this book, which is concerned with the ‘general principles’ of contract rather than the detailed rules applicable to different types of contracts; the location of contract as part of the law of obligations and its relation to other parts of the law of obligations, tort and restitution of an unjust enrichment, and property law.

15. Good faith

Contract Law ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindy Chen-Wishart
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
General Duty ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Difference

English law does not currently recognise a general duty of good faith, but this position is increasingly being challenged. In addition, good faith informs a diverse range of legal doctrines and principles. This chapter addresses the following: the meaning of good faith; good faith in current contract law; and the nature of good faith. It further considers whether English law should recognise a general good faith doctrine and the difference this might make to various aspects of the law.

The Health of Nations and the Health of Europe

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Neil MacCormick
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
Ordinary Citizen ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
At Home

It is an honour to be invited to give this year’s Mackenzie Stuart Lecture. Jack Mackenzie Stuart was a distinguished graduate of this University and of ours in Edinburgh. As a member, and subsequently the President, of the Court of Justice of the European Communities he made a great contribution to the cause of European integration through implementing the laws of the Communities, subsequently the ‘European Union’. As well as performing the ordinary tasks of judging and also latterly of presiding over the Court’s business, he was an apparently tireless publicist for that cause throughout Europe, but most particularly at home in the UK. By seeking to make the work of his Court and the law it administered less mystifying to the ordinary citizen and to the lawyerly public, he made it also less threatening.

Conflict-of-Law Regulation of Obligations, Arising from Faulty Negotiations of Treaties (culpa in contrahendo) in Russia and the European Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Ольга Муратова ◽  
Olga Muratova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Culpa In Contrahendo ◽  
Contractual Relations ◽  
The Law ◽  
Contractual Obligations ◽  
Law Regulation ◽  
Conflict Of Law

The article covers the questions of comparative analysis of conflict-of-law regulation of obligations, arising from faulty negotiations of treaties in the Russian legislation and the European law. Such regulation is envisaged in article 12221 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and in article 12 of the Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II). The author considers conflict-of-law regulation of pre-contractual relations from the point of view of the following aspects: possibility of applying the agreement about the law chosen by the parties to regulate their pre-contractual relations; applying the contractual connecting factor to determine the law applicable to precontractual relations; exploration of other connecting factors applicable to the precontractual relations in case of impossibility to determine the applicable law on the basis of the contractual connecting factor. The author’s conclusion contains the results of the comparative analysis, such as deduction of common and specific features of the Russian and European conflict-of-law regulation of the above-mentioned group of obligations. Also the author offers some recommendations on the improvement of the Russian legislation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document