Major Issues in Contract Law - Essay Example

The issues that require to be dealt with are a part of contract law and these are a possible unilateral offer or an invitation to treat and a possibility of a revocation of an offer.

The writer would be putting arguments from both sides, but would eventually prove that an offer had been constituted, but the revocation had not been successful.

The case law on offer, acceptance, and revocation will be dealt with and finally, an analysis would be made as to whether there has been an offer, acceptance, and revocation.

The first important point that needs to be established is whether it was a unilateral offer or an invitation to treat.

An offer is defined as an expression of willingness by the offeror to be bound by certain terms. (Storer v. Manchester City Council). However, it must be stressed that not all communications are offers. An invitation to treat is an invitation by one person to the other to commence negotiations. An advertisement is generally treated as an invitation to treat. (Partridge v. Crittenden). However, the courts in Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. found that an advertisement constituted to be an offer. The main reason was that the amount of reward which had been specified was guaranteed, this was seen by the fact that 1000 pounds had been deposited in the bank.

The next point is acceptance, which can be done through words or conduct (Brogden v. Metropolitan Railway).

An unaccepted offer can be revoked at any time if there has been a change of mind (Offord v. Davies)

However, a revocation of a unilateral offer has caused problems. It has been suggested by Treitel that revocation of an offer may occur by the same means of communication of the offer. The problem that the courts have faced at times is that of ascertaining when acceptance of a unilateral offer has taken place.

The uncertainty that has been caused due to such problems of offer, acceptance, and revocation must be resolved by adopting a legislative act and forming an integrated approach to remove any uncertainty. Thus the case law can be taken into account and an Act can be put into effect.

The uncertainties will be resolved in the sense that clear points would be present as to when a unilateral offer has come into effect when acceptance of such an offer has taken place, and finally of revocation. However, if an act is established it would provide a bit more certainty at the cost of flexibility. Thus the flexibility which has prevailed in contract law might be said to be given away. However, it can be said that certainty is a vital factor that would be more beneficial than flexibility.

In the case of David, it can be said that the acceptance would only take place after he had found the coins. Thus the revocation would have taken place if Perry had revoked the offer through the same newspaper. Presuming that David had not been informed of the revocation, he would be compensated the amount which had been promised.

These problems of offer, acceptance, and revocation have long prevailed in contracts and so the only possible solution that can be found to resolve such uncertainty is to give away flexibility and provide for more certainty by the introduction of statutory measures.