When discussing the concept of contract law, there exist two bodies of legal rules that may apply to the contract. These bodies are the common law of contracts and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code or the UCC. The common law of contracts is court made and is constantly changing, but the UCC is required in every state within the U.S.A. It is important to know which one to use and when, as well as what the differences between them are.
The UCC was created with the purpose of bringing uniformity to the States in regards to commercial transactions. These regulations apply to commercial contracts that deal with the sale of goods. It does not apply to private and nonprofessional sales, property, services, or intangible goods. If the code
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Common law dictates that the acceptance must be a mirror image of the offer, regardless of what the difference may be. The Pride v Lewis case is an example of the mirror image rule in action. Pride owned a house which they listed for sale but found a renter in the meantime. Lewis made an offer on the house with a closing date of May 15th, and the Prides accepted but changed the closing date to June 1st and proceeded to evict their tenant and take the house off the market. When the Lewises never showed up to closing, the Prides relisted the house but were never able to find another tenant and ended up selling the house for $15,000 less than the Lewis’s had offered. The Prides sued the Lewises for breach of contract but lost due to the mirror image rule. The different closing date in the acceptance effectively rejected the Lewises offer and no contract was formed. The UCC is not as stringent on the acceptance, it utilizes a “battle of forms” as dictated in section 2-207 which checks for a substantive difference between the offer and the acceptance, such as price, goods ordered, delivery date, and other similar matters. It could also allow a term from the acceptance to be considered a valid part of the contract unless the offer expressly limited acceptance, the new terms would substantively alter the offer with differences such as price, or the offeror objects to the new terms within a reasonable time
One example of this situation is that prior to the adoption of the UCC sales contracts were governed by the common law of contracts. However, the common law of contracts did not adequately address the specialized transactions that are routine in the sales of goods. Thus, while many of the principles of the common law of contracts reflects in the UCC, there are important differences.
With commercial dealings on the rise in Australia and globally, so too are the complications. If some sort of codification is not established and built from the principals that already exist, commercial opportunities could be in jeopardy due to the uncertainty and risk of not having a clear outline or set of laws to cover contracts generally.
Together with the common law, the Uniform Commercial Code is one of the primary sources of contract law in the United States. The Uniform Commercial Code is commonly known as the UCC, that have been promulgated in conjunction with a purpose to harmonize the law of sales and other commercial exchanges within the U.S. As a model law, it's really proposal that each state has to choose whether to adopt or not but the code was enormously successful that it has been enacted in all of the 50 states, although with variations. Once they are adopted by the states they become state statute. Among other things, Article 2 of the UCC governs transactions for the sales of goods that are moveable items and they have to be tangible. The UCC also provides different provisions relying upon whether parties to a contract are merchants or non-merchants (referred to individuals who don't have expert knowledge about the goods he/she deals in).
For instance, a bilateral contract is formed when both parties exchange a mutual promise to perform some action in the future and a unilateral contract is one party makes a promise to the other’s party performance is soon completed. Lastly, in the common law contract requires a spoken or written representation of the quantity, price, performance time, nature of work and the identity of an offer between two parties or one party offer to be part of a valid contract. Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) was drafted in “an attempt to unify state laws affecting commerce into a single code that all states could adopt to make interstate commerce easier and more efficient (Roger, S. (2012)). Seeing that it governs contracts between merchants and tangible objects (i.e. the sales of goods). The elements of Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) contract are the following: Offer: An invitation for another to enter into a contract, Acceptance: Acquiescence to enter into a contract under the terms of the offer (Roger, S. (2012)). In case, firm offers are made by merchants to either “buy or sell goods” and that merchant can be either “an offeror or offeree” depending upon who initiates the
4. The offer must specifically state the quantity of the goods. As long as the quantity is mentioned in the contract, the other missing terms do not make the offer invalid under the UCC. Allie agreed to sell Minnie three apples for the price of one apple.
Paragraph #2-Determine if the contracts with the businesses will be governed by common law or the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), and explain why.
This project began to give consideration to instituting a separate article of the UCC for software and related contracts. Article 2B is designed to bring uniformity across states and across the goods vs. services issue. It is intended to make software contract laws more consistent and clear among states. If laws are consistent from state to state it makes it easier for buyers and sellers to understand how to do business with each other. There is a great benefit in creating a uniform system for software products and services, however, this proposal for Article 2B does have major flaws.
Contract laws had two problems which are old contract law principles often did not reflect modern business practices, and law had become different from one state to another. On many legal topics, contacts law included the national government has had a little to say and has allowed the state to act individually. The UCC was made as an effort to answer two problems. I was a proposal written by legal scholars not a law drafted by members of congress or stat legislatures. The scholars at the American law institute and the national conference of commissioners on uniform state laws had great ideas but they had no legal authority to make anyone do anything. Over time, lawmakers in al fifty states were persuaded to adopt many parts of the Uniform Commercial Code. They responded to persuasive arguments such as businesses will benefit if most commercial transactions are governed by the modern and efficient contract law principles that are outlined in the uniform commercial code. Also businesses everywhere will be able to operate more efficiently, and transactions will be more convenient, if the law surrounding most of their transactions is the same in all fifty states. The main focus is in the article 2 of the uniform commercial code book.
2014). Moreover, binding contract is made at the time and place when the letter of acceptance is posted. In the case of Adams v Lindsell (1818) 106 ER where Lindsell wrote to Adam offering him some wool and asked him to reply by post too. However, Lindsell’s letter was delayed in the post. The day Adam received the letter, he immediately replied with an acceptance letter but before it could reach Lindsell, she had sold the wool to other party. This leads Adam to sue Lindsell for breaching of contract. The court is on Adam’s side as there was an agreement made the moment he posted the acceptance letter to Lindsell (the postal acceptance rule). Moreover, Lindsell cannot argue the mode of acceptance used by Adam as she was the one asking him to do
When applying to law schools, it was imperative that I find an institution that offered legal clinics and student groups in the areas I am most passionate about. Thankfully, I discovered what Georgetown University Law Center has to offer. Georgetown Law is home to the Domestic Violence Clinic, Georgetown Street Law Program, and the Harrison Institute for Housing and Community Development. The work of these three programs alone, made it instinctive for me to write this letter to express my commitment to attend Georgetown Law if admitted.
(c) in the case of a contract governed by the law of sale of goods or hire-purchase, or by section 7 of this Act, the goods passing under or in pursuance of the contract are of a type ordinarily supplied for private use or consumption.
A contract is an agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to perform some actions in return of some consideration. These promises are legally binding. The contract can be for exchange of goods, services, property and so on. A contract can be oral as well as written and also it can be part oral and part written but it is useful to have written contract otherwise issues can be created in future. But both the written as well as oral contract is legally enforceable. Also if there is a breach of contract, there are certain remedies for that which are discussed later in the assignment. There are certain elements which need to be present in a contract. These elements are discussed in the detail in the assignment. (Clarke,
Contractual agreement has always been viewed in terms of offer and acceptance. The universal principle to contract law has always been parties may get into an agreement in whichever way they deem fit and they are subject to certain terms as they choose. As far as legal requirements vital to their formation are binding contracts may be formed. Moreover a binding agreement may be manifested in terms of writing or in verbal form.
An offer continues in existence, capable of acceptance until it is brought to an end.
A contract actually starts when the other party makes an offer (offeror), and then it is accepted by