1. Lecture 12:
Introduction to
Contract Law
Foundation Law
2013/14

2. Recap-Lecture11: Law of Torts (2)
• In last week’s lecture we looked at the other types of
torts, namely:
The Tort of Defamation;
The Tort of Trespass (both against the person and
property); and
The Tort of Nuisance

3. Tort of Trespass
• What is a trespass?
• Trespass is the direct interference with another person
or his property, which infringes the person’s right to
enjoyment of his land, possession of his goods or
freedom of movement
• Trespass is actionable per se
• This means that the claimant only needs to show that
the trespass occurred, although it is not necessary to
show that the defendant caused any damage or injury.

4. Trespass to the Person
• There are three categories of trespass to the person:
• Assault;
• Battery; and
• False Imprisonment

5. Assault
• Assault is an act which causes another person to fear
immediate and unlawful force
• The claimant must therefore, prove 2 elements:
1. The defendant intended to threaten physical injury;
and
2. This threat caused the claimant to reasonably fear the
application of direct and immediate force.
• The claimant must reasonably fear that immediate force
will be used against him

6. Battery
• Battery is the application of unlawful force to another
person
• The claimant has to prove 3 elements for battery:
1. The defendant intended to apply force to the
claimant;
2. The force applied must be direct and immediate;
and
3. The force must be unlawful.

7. Defences to Battery & Assault
• Self defence: a person may use reasonable force to
defend himself or another. What is reasonable will
depend on the facts of the case
• Lawful arrest: reasonable force may be used to make a
lawful arrest. Therefore, it’s possible for a police
officer to commit battery/assault, if the force he used
to arrest the claimant was unreasonable (e.g.,
grabbing the claimant by the collar of his shirt.)

8. False Imprisonment
• False imprisonment is whereby without a lawful reason,
the claimant is prevented from moving freely and it is
therefore, the deprivation of personal liberty
• LJ Goff in Collins v Wilcock (1984), defined false
imprisonment as the “unlawful imposition of constraint on
another’s freedom of movement from a particular place”
• The claimant must prove 3 elements:
1. The defendant intended to restrict the claimant’s
freedom of movement;
2. The claimant’s freedom of movement was completely
restricted (e.g., the claimant had no reasonable means
of escape); and
3. The restriction was unlawful.

9. Defences to false imprisonment
• Lawful arrest: any person who has been lawfully
arrested may be detained as per the rules under the
Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE)
• Court order of imprisonment: an imprisonment
sentence passed by a court allows the defendant to be
lawfully detained
• Mental health order: the Mental Health Acts allow a
person to be held in a mental hospital under certain
circumstances. For example, if the person poses a
threat to the public or if s/he has suicidal tendencies

10. Trespass to Land
• Trespass to land is defined as any intentional and unjustifiable
interference with the land or buildings of another person
• Like trespass to the person, no damage to the land/building needs to
be proven by the claimant
• The claimant must therefore, prove the following 3 elements for
trespass to land:
1. The defendant acted intentionally;
2. The defendant’s actions interfered with the claimant’s land; and
3. Such interference occurred without any legal authority
• Defences to trespass to land

11. Trespass to goods
• Trespass to goods consists of direct and unlawful damage to, or
interference with, goods in the possession of another person
• What are goods?
• Goods are moveable objects (“chattels”)- e.g., books, mobile phone,
cars…..
• The claimant needs to prove the following 2 elements to the tort of
trespass to goods/chattels:
1. the defendant must intentionally interfere with the goods; and
2. the goods must be in the possession of the claimant

12. What is a nuisance and how is it different
from a trespass?
• Unlike a trespass, which is actionable per se, a nuisance is an
indirect interference to land which causes damage
• Therefore, the claimant must prove damage
• Private Nuisance: a type of nuisance which unreasonably
interferes with the claimant’s use or enjoyment of his land (e.g.,
branches of a tree hanging over another person’s garden)
• Public Nuisance: a type of nuisance which affects the
reasonable comfort and convenience of a group of people (e.g.,
a faulty street light)

13. Defamation
• Defamation is the making and publishing of a false statement
about a person which damages that person’s reputation.
• Lord Atkins in the case Sim v Stetch (1936) defined defamation
as an untrue statement which “causes the claimant to be
regarded with feelings of hatred, contempt, ridicule, fear and
disesteem” in the eyes of reasonable people
• Two types of defamation:
• Libel: permanent form…actionable per se
• Slander: impermanent/temporary form….not actionable per se

14. • The claimant must prove the following elements for
defamation (both libel and slander):
The statement must be defamatory: the statement must
be untrue and must lower the reputation of the claimant
in the eyes of the reasonable members of society;
The statement must refer to the claimant; and
The statement must be published.

15. This week…………
Introduction to
Contract Law

16. Learning Outcomes:
• Explain what a contract is and how contracts are formed;
• Outline the key elements of a contract;
• Explain the difference between an offer and an invitation
to treat;
• Become familiar with contract law terminology;
• Apply legal principles to given facts and demonstrate
criticality & analysis when answering fact based questions;
and
• Analyse case law and be able to apply case law in a
persuasive manner to hypothetical case studies.

17. What is a Contract?
• A contract is:
“An agreement between two parties who promise to
give and receive something from each other, known as
consideration, and who intend the agreement to be
legally binding”.

18. 7 elements of a Contract
Offer
Acceptance
Consideration
Capacity
Intention to create legal relations
Legality
Agreement
• This week’s lecture will focus on offer and
acceptance………..

19. OFFERS
• What is an offer?
• Oxford Dictionary of Law definition: “ an indication of willingness to do
or refrain from doing something that is capable of being converted by
acceptance into a legally binding contract”
• Offers therefore, generally refer to a willingness to do/not to do
something…..offers are usually made with respect to underlying
terms/conditions of an agreement. For example, offer of a price.
• “Offeror”- the person who is making an offer (For example, Sue is
offering to buy Jen’s car for £5000)
• “Offeree”- the person to whom the offer is made (in the example
above, this would be Jen)

20. Invitations to Treat

21. Invitations to Treat
• An offer is NOT the same thing as an invitation to treat!
• An invitation to treat is essentially an invitation to someone to
make an offer. It is not an offer. This “invitation” or “offer” can
either be accepted or rejected by the offeree.
• Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists
Ltd (1953): items displayed for sale are invitations to treat
• Fisher v Bell (1961): held that displaying a flick knife with a price
tag in the shop window, was an invitation to treat and not an
offer for sale
• Harris v Nickerson (1873): it was held that an advertisement
giving details of a forthcoming auction was not an offer but an
invitation to make an offer (upheld in Partridge v Crittenden
(1968))

22. Invitations to Treat
• Therefore, articles displayed for sale and
advertisements are invitations to treat and not offers
• However, reward posters are considered to be offers,
as outlined in Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893)

23. Offers
• There are 5 key rules relating to offers:
1. An offer may be made to one or more parties
2. Offers need not to be made in writing
3. The offer must be communicated
4. Revocation of an offer
5. Other ways of terminating an offer

24. An offer may be made to one or more
persons
• Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1892): A company advertised a
flu cure. They said, in the offer that if you used the remedy and
then suffered from flu, they would give you £100. They put
£1000 in the bank to show sincerity. A woman used it and
caught flu. She argued that the company should give her £100.
• The court held that:
• An offer can be made to many people: it need not simply be
between two people
• Advertisements are not usually offers. However, the company
intended it to be an offer; because they deposited £1000 in the
bank.

25. Offers need not be made in writing
• Writing is a form of evidence that an offer has been made but it is not
a requirement
• Therefore, oral offers and offers made by gestures (actions), are
recognised

26. The offer must be communicated
• The offeree must be made aware of the offer
• The offer must be effectively communicated, so that a contract can be
born

27. Revocation of an offer
• Revocation of an offer refers to its termination
• However, an offer can only be revoked if the offer has not yet been
accepted
• The offeror must communicate the revocation to the offeree- Bryne v
Van Tienhoven (1880)
• When someone pays to make an offer for a certain amount of time (e.g. an
advertisement in a newspaper), then the offer cannot be revoked until that
amount of time has elapsed.

28. Other ways of ending an offer
• Offers may also be terminated by one of the following ways:
a) Refusal: the offeree refuses to accept the offer
b) Counter-offer: when the offeree rejects the offeror’s original offer
and makes an alternative (counter) offer for the offeror to consider. The
original offer can also be varied , in which case the new offer will also
be considered as a counter offer
c) Lapse of time: The offeror can state that his offer will only exist for a
certain amount of time. But if he does not state a time period, the offer
will last for a “reasonable period of time”. This will vary according to the
facts
d) Death: of either party. However, if the person accepting the offer
does not know of the offeror's death AND the deceased offeror's
representatives are able to carry out the contract, then the offer will
not end

29. Acceptance of Offers
• Acceptance of an offer is final and once an offer is
accepted then the contract is in existence and can only be
revoked if the parties agree
• However, there are 5 key rules relating to the valid
acceptance of an offer:
1) The offer can only be accepted by the offeree
2) The acceptance must be absolute and unqualified
3) Acceptance must be communicated to the offeror
4) Acceptance must generally be in the form that the
offeror specifies
5) The offer must still be in existence when it is accepted

30. Acceptance by the offeree
• Boulton v Jones (1857): only the person to whom the offer is made
may accept the offer
• Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1892)

31. Acceptance must be absolute and unqualified
• The terms/ conditions of the final offer must be absolute and
unqualified

32. Acceptance must be communicated to the
offeror
• Communication can be orally or in writing and it can
also take the form of conduct (For example, in Carlill v
Carbolic Smoke Ball Co, the purchase of the remedy
was acceptance of the terms of the offer)
• Felthouse v Bindley (1862): silence does not constitute
acceptance

33. Acceptance must generally be in the form that
the offeror specifies
• Where there is no form specified, then reasonable methods of
communication will be accepted

34. The offer must still be in existence when it is
accepted
• An offer ceases to exist once the time limit by which it
has to be accepted lapses
• Where no time limit has been set, the law assumes
that the offer exists only for a “reasonable period of
time” but not indefinitely
• Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore (1866): the
courts made it clear that the delay between 8th June
and 25th November was not reasonable and far too
great.

35. The Postal Rule
• This rule only applies where post is held to be the
most reasonable means of communicating offer and
acceptance, (OR if the offeror states that post is the
preferred method of communication):
 the offer is effective when it arrives
Postal acceptance also is only effective when it
arrives, rather than when it is placed in the letter
box. However, if the offeror intends that acceptance
is effective when placed in the letter box, then this
will be sufficient

36. Preps. For Seminar 12:
• Hand-out:
• Reading List:
• Jacqueline Martin, “GCSE Law”, 5th edition, Chapter
30-Rights and responsibilities: contract law
• List of cases
• Preparatory Questions