English contract law (original) (raw)

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Das Contract Law Englands und Wales' ist der Teil der Rechtsordnung Englands und Wales', der sich mit den Voraussetzungen und Wirkungen von Verträgen beschäftigt. Er beinhaltet somit größtenteils Rechtsgebiete, die ihre funktionalen Äquivalente in der und im allgemeinen Schuldrecht der Rechtsordnungen des deutschen Rechtskreises finden. Eine Besonderheit des common law ist die Forderung von Consideration (etwa ‚Gegenleistung‘) für die Wirksamkeit eines Vertrages. (de)
English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth (such as Australia, Canada, India), from membership in the European Union, continuing membership in Unidroit, and to a lesser extent the United States. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. A contract is a voluntary obligation, contrasting to the duty to not violate others rights in tort or unjust enrichment. English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court, so long as they comply with statutory and human rights. Generally a contract forms when one person makes an offer, and another person accepts it by communicating their assent or performing the offer's terms. If the terms are certain, and the parties can be presumed from their behaviour to have intended that the terms are binding, generally the agreement is enforceable. Some contracts, particularly for large transactions such as a sale of land, also require the formalities of signatures and witnesses and English law goes further than other European countries by requiring all parties bring something of value, known as "consideration", to a bargain as a precondition to enforce it. Contracts can be made personally or through an agent acting on behalf of a principal, if the agent acts within what a reasonable person would think they have the authority to do. In principle, English law grants people broad freedom to agree the content of a deal. Terms in an agreement are incorporated through express promises, by reference to other terms or potentially through a course of dealing between two parties. Those terms are interpreted by the courts to seek out the true intention of the parties, from the perspective of an objective observer, in the context of their bargaining environment. Where there is a gap, courts typically imply terms to fill the spaces, but also through the 20th century both the judiciary and legislature have intervened more and more to strike out surprising and unfair terms, particularly in favour of consumers, employees or tenants with weaker bargaining power. Contract law works best when an agreement is performed, and recourse to the courts is never needed because each party knows their rights and duties. However, where an unforeseen event renders an agreement very hard, or even impossible to perform, the courts typically will construe the parties to want to have released themselves from their obligations. It may also be that one party simply breaches a contract's terms. If a contract is not substantially performed, then the innocent party is entitled to cease their own performance and sue for damages to put them in the position as if the contract were performed. They are under a duty to mitigate their own losses and cannot claim for harm that was a remote consequence of the contractual breach, but remedies in English law are footed on the principle that full compensation for all losses, pecuniary or not, should be made good. In exceptional circumstances, the law goes further to require a wrongdoer to make restitution for their gains from breaching a contract, and may demand specific performance of the agreement rather than monetary compensation. It is also possible that a contract becomes voidable, because, depending on the specific type of contract, one party failed to make adequate disclosure or they made misrepresentations during negotiations. Unconscionable agreements can be escaped where a person was under duress or undue influence or their vulnerability was being exploited when they ostensibly agreed to a deal. Children, mentally incapacitated people, and companies whose representatives are acting wholly outside their authority, are protected against having agreements enforced against them where they lacked the real capacity to make a decision to enter an agreement. Some transactions are considered illegal, and are not enforced by courts because of a statute or on grounds of public policy. In theory, English law attempts to adhere to a principle that people should only be bound when they have given their informed and true consent to a contract. (en)
En droit anglais, le contrat est une promesse ou un accord réalisé sur un ensemble de promesses. La rupture d'un contrat est reconnue par le droit, et des remèdes juridiques peuvent y être apportés. Le contrat consensuel (simple contract) est dominé par le principe de la consideration qui n'admet pas de contrat à titre gratuit. L'onérosité est ainsi un élément essentiel à la formation du contrat, pour laquelle il faut une contrepartie à une promesse, qu'il s'agisse d'un paiement ou d'une prestation réciproque. Par contre, le contrat solennel échappe à la consideration. (fr)
英国合同法（英語：English contract law）是英国规定合同的法律。它继承自，受过司法能动主义的影响，因此与、和等以及美国的合同法有共同之处。由于英国是欧盟成员和国际统一私法协会成员，此法律目前正在逐渐调整。可以由法庭强制执行的协议就是合同。因为合同是之债，不同于侵權行為與不當得利，所以英国法律尤其重视验定人们确实允诺过法庭上涉及的约定。通常来讲，一方作出要约，另一方接受该要约（表示同意，或履行要约条款）之后，就形成合同。如果合同条款是确定的，并且当事人的行为表明他们答应这些条款，通常情况下此协议就可强制执行。某些合同还要求要正式的签名手续和见证人——比如像土地买卖这种大笔交易。对于这类合同，英国法比其他欧洲法要求更严，它要求所有当事方为该议定交易都要提供有价值的事物（称为），这是强制执行的前提。合同可亲自签订，也可由代理委托人签订。代理人需在通常正常人判断该代理人有权行事的范围内行事。原则上，英国法赋予人们协定约定内容的高度自由。协议中条款与明示诺言并存，明示诺言引用其他条款。协议中条款也可与双方交易过程潜在并存。这些条款由法庭作出解释，法庭要在他们的交易场景下，从客观观察者的视角寻定各当事方的真实意图。若不足以寻定，法庭的标准做法是指出隐含条款以填补空缺。不过20世纪期间司法机构和立法机构越来越多地时候是删去离奇和不平等的条款，特别会对消费者、雇员和佃户等方加以照顾。合同法在协议正常履行时起到最好的作用。此时各方都明瞭自己的权利和义务，所以无需求助于法院。然而若发生不可预期之事件，使得协议難以或無法执行，法庭的标准做法是认定各方均想摆脱他们的义务。也可能出现单方违反合同条款的状况。如果合同没有实质履行，那么不可歸責之一方有权停止履行該契約，并可請求损害赔偿，以获得合同履行时自己能得到的利益。不可歸責之一方有责任减少自己的损失，他不能要求对合同违约所导致的过于间接的损害进行赔偿。但英国法中的补救措施也基于要好好充分利用所有损失的完全赔偿的原理。某些特殊情况下，法律会进而要求可歸責之人返還因违约所获得之利益，也可能要求契約，而不是金錢赔偿。还可能出现合同可撤销的状况。对于某种特定的合同类型，一方没能公开足够的信息或者在洽谈时做了，则合同可撤销。如果签订人在表面上达成协议时被胁迫、受不正当压力或被利用了弱点，这种可以免除。对于儿童，无行为能力者以及其代表完全超出所赋职权而行事的公司，如果他们不具备做出签约决定的，则受不被所签协议约束的保护。有些交易被认定为，依据某项成文法或者国家政策不受法庭保护。理论上，英国法律希望坚持的原理是，人们仅在给予某个合同以知情和真正的同意时，才受合同约束。 (zh)

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"The foundation of contract is the reasonable expectation, which the person who promises raises in the person to whom he binds himself; of which the satisfaction may be exerted by force." (en)
"None of you nowadays will remember the trouble we had – when I was called to the Bar – with exemption clauses. They were printed in small print on the back of tickets and order forms and invoices. They were contained in catalogues or timetables. They were held to be binding on any person who took them without objection. No one ever did object. He never read them or knew what was in them. No matter how unreasonable they were, he was bound. All this was done in the name of "freedom of contract." But the freedom was all on the side of the big concern which had the use of the printing press. No freedom for the little man who took the ticket or order form or invoice. The big concern said, "Take it or leave it." The little man had no option but to take it.... When the courts said to the big concern, "You must put it in clear words," the big concern had no hesitation in doing so. It knew well that the little man would never read the exemption clauses or understand them. It was a bleak winter for our law of contract." (en)
'governments do not limit their concern with contracts to a simple enforcement. They take upon themselves to determine what contracts are fit to be enforced.... once it is admitted that there are any engagements which for reasons of expediency the law ought not to enforce, the same question is necessarily opened with respect to all engagements. Whether, for example, the law should enforce a contract to labour, when the wages are too low or the hours of work too severe: whether it should enforce a contract by which a person binds himself to remain, for more than a very limited period, in the service of a given individual.... Every question which can possibly arise as to the policy of contracts, and of the relations which they establish among human beings, is a question for the legislator; and one which he cannot escape from considering, and in some way or other deciding.’ (en)

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Das Contract Law Englands und Wales' ist der Teil der Rechtsordnung Englands und Wales', der sich mit den Voraussetzungen und Wirkungen von Verträgen beschäftigt. Er beinhaltet somit größtenteils Rechtsgebiete, die ihre funktionalen Äquivalente in der und im allgemeinen Schuldrecht der Rechtsordnungen des deutschen Rechtskreises finden. Eine Besonderheit des common law ist die Forderung von Consideration (etwa ‚Gegenleistung‘) für die Wirksamkeit eines Vertrages. (de)
En droit anglais, le contrat est une promesse ou un accord réalisé sur un ensemble de promesses. La rupture d'un contrat est reconnue par le droit, et des remèdes juridiques peuvent y être apportés. Le contrat consensuel (simple contract) est dominé par le principe de la consideration qui n'admet pas de contrat à titre gratuit. L'onérosité est ainsi un élément essentiel à la formation du contrat, pour laquelle il faut une contrepartie à une promesse, qu'il s'agisse d'un paiement ou d'une prestation réciproque. Par contre, le contrat solennel échappe à la consideration. (fr)
English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth (such as Australia, Canada, India), from membership in the European Union, continuing membership in Unidroit, and to a lesser extent the United States. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. A contract is a voluntary obligation, contrasting to the duty to not violate others rights in tort or unjust enrichment. English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court, so long as they comply with statutory and human rights. (en)
英国合同法（英語：English contract law）是英国规定合同的法律。它继承自，受过司法能动主义的影响，因此与、和等以及美国的合同法有共同之处。由于英国是欧盟成员和国际统一私法协会成员，此法律目前正在逐渐调整。可以由法庭强制执行的协议就是合同。因为合同是之债，不同于侵權行為與不當得利，所以英国法律尤其重视验定人们确实允诺过法庭上涉及的约定。通常来讲，一方作出要约，另一方接受该要约（表示同意，或履行要约条款）之后，就形成合同。如果合同条款是确定的，并且当事人的行为表明他们答应这些条款，通常情况下此协议就可强制执行。某些合同还要求要正式的签名手续和见证人——比如像土地买卖这种大笔交易。对于这类合同，英国法比其他欧洲法要求更严，它要求所有当事方为该议定交易都要提供有价值的事物（称为），这是强制执行的前提。 (zh)

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English contract law (en)
Contract law (England und Wales) (de)
Contrat en droit anglais (fr)
英国合同法 (zh)

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