English Contract Law/Introduction



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Elements
A contract has five essential elements, which must all be present at the same time:


 * Agreement
 * Offer
 * Acceptance
 * Consideration
 * Capacity
 * Certainty
 * Intention

Agreement
Agreement is a difficult element to define without giving examples. Consider the following types of agreements, some of which are legally enforceable and others are not:
 * A
 * An agreement to meet for coffee
 * A
 * An agreement to share a car for travelling to and from work
 * An agreement to enrol in an organization
 * An agreement to purchase a new laptop	computer

How does the law determine the existence of an agreement? There are two general ways of approaching this question: (the parties intentions) and  (the outward evidence). The law follows the objective approach and looks at the outward evidence, rather than just what the parties were intending, because sometimes an agreement may not be apparent from their intentions alone. This approach was confirmed recently in.
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