The Importance and Necessity of Consideration in English Law - Dissertation Example

The doctrine of consideration has been deeply rooted in contract law since the 16th century, and it is a crucial factor to determine whether an agreement is enforceable or unenforceable. In English contract law, a promise is not as a general rule binding as a contract unless it is either made indeed or supported by some consideration. The general rule is that simple or ordinary contracts are not legally binding unless supported by consideration. The purpose of the requirement of consideration is to put some legal limits on the enforceability of agreements even where they are intended to be legally binding.

Thus, gratuitous promises (gifts) are not binding because they are made without consideration and the claims of such promises are less compelling than those of a person who has furnished consideration.Meaning of ConsiderationIt is common knowledge that definitions as to the legal meaning of consideration can be classified into two categories. The first identifies consideration with regards to advantage and loss: and the second category identifies consideration to it as an ingredient of a bargain The courts have appropriately defined in the following cases: Lush J in Currie v Misa state that “ a valuable consideration in the sense of the law may consist of some rights, interest, profit or benefits occurring to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility given, suffered or undertaken by the other”Consideration means something which is of some value in the eye of the law, moving from the plaintiff; it may be some detriment to the plaintiff or some benefit to the defendant, but at all events, it must be moving from the plaintiff.

Pollock defines consideration as “An act or forbearance of the one party, or the promise thereof, is the price for which the promise of the other is bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable”. It was stated in Restatement, Contracts that: (1) To constitute consideration, a performance or a return promise must be bargained for.