contract law principles may state a general rule, very often, the law for the purposes of employment contracts may differ. The classical model of contractual relations outlined above works on the basis of freedom of contract. It assumes the contract arena is a level playing field on which all participants are equal in terms of bargaining power. But this is patently not the case. Many of the rules developed in the 20th century recognise that individual consumers do not have the same bargaining strength as a multinational company. The consumer requires protection, especially in the light of the widespread use by business of the ‘standard form’ contract. Some rules towards this end have been developed at common law but, to a large extent, common law development has been hindered by the conflict between the needs of consumers and the principle of freedom of contract espoused in the classical theory. Even in the field of purely commercial contracts, where the classical theory appears to have its strongest hold, there are exceptions. What must be appreciated is that traders operate on an international level and the ancient law merchant had started to develop before the 19th century classical theory took hold. In order to cater for the needs of the trading community, some of the classical rules were modified to take account of established trading practice. Thus, a number of the rules gathered together under the doctrine of consideration are modified to take account of practices established many