Contract

A contract may be defined as an agreement enforceable at law with specific terms between
two or more persons or entities in which there is a promise to do or refrain from doing
something, in return for a valuable benefit known as consideration, the failure to perform such
duty is called breach of contract.
The law provides remedies if a promise is breached- aiming to restore the person
wronged to the position they would occupy if the contract had not been breached,
rather than punish the breaching party. Contracts are mainly governed by state
statutory and common (judge-made) law and private law.

Contract is one of the three or four most significant areas of legal concerns and can involve
variations on circumstances and complexities.
The existence of a contract requires finding the following factual elements: a) an offer; b) an acc
eptance ofthat offer which results in a meeting of the minds; c) a promise to perform; d) a valuab
le consideration (which can be apromise or payment in some form); e) a time or event when perf
ormance must be made (meet commitments); f) terms andconditions for performance, including f
ulfilling promises; g) performance.
A unilateral contract is one in which there is apromise to pay or give other consideration in retur
n for actual performance. (I will pay you $500 to fix my car by Thursday;
the performance is fixing the car by that date). A bilateral contract is one in which a promise is e
xchanged for a promise. (Ipromise to fix your car by Thursday and you promise to pay $500 on
Thursday). Contracts can be either written or oral, butoral contracts are more difficult to prove an
d in most jurisdictions the time to sue on the contract is shorter (such as twoyears for oral compar
ed to four years for written). In some cases, a contract can consist of several documents, such as
aseries of letters, orders, offers and counteroffers. There are a variety of types of contracts: "cond
itional" on an eventoccurring; "joint and several," in which several parties make a joint promise t
o perform, but each is responsible; "implied," inwhich the courts will determine there is a contrac
t based on the circumstances. Parties can contract to supply all another'srequirements, buy all the
products made, or enter into an option to renew a contract. The variations are almost limitless.
Contracts for illegal purposes are not enforceable at law. 2) v. to enter into an agreement.

Contracts are agreements that are legally enforceable. A contract may involve a duty to do or
refrain from doing something, and the failure to perform such duty is called a breach of contract.
The law provides remedies if a promise is breached- aiming to restore the person wronged to the
position they would occupy if the contract had not been breached, rather than punish the
breaching party.
The existence of a contract requires:
a) an offer;
b) an acceptance of that offer which results in a meeting of the minds,
c) a promise to perform,
d) a valuable consideration,
e) a time or event when performance must be made,
f) terms and conditions for performance,
g) performance, if the contract is "unilateral".
A unilateral contract is one in which there is a promise to pay or give other consideration in
return for actual performance. A bilateral contract is one in which a promise is exchanged for a
promise. In most cases contracts, can be either written or oral, but oral contracts are more
difficult to prove and in most jurisdictions the time to sue on the contract is shorter. To be legally
binding as a contract, a promise must be exchanged for adequate consideration. Adequate
consideration is a benefit or detriment which a party receives which reasonably and fairly
induces them to make the promise/contract. Therefore, gifts are not supported by adequate
consideration and the promise to make a gift is generally unenforceable.
Contracts are mainly governed by state statutory and common (judge-made) law and private law.
Private law generally refers to the terms of the agreement between the parties, as parties have
freedom to override many state law requirements regarding formalities of contracts. The Uniform
Commercial Code, which has been adopted in some form in nearly every state, governs
important categories of contracts, such as sales and secured transactions. Contracts related to
particular activities or industries may be highly regulated by state and/or federal law.