Contract Formation : Law and Practice

This book on contract formation provides a practical analysis of the legal principles which govern the formation of contracts in English law, offering those involved in litigation and in drafting contracts a guide to the application of those principles in practice.

The first part of this work discusses negotiations falling short of binding agreements. Included in this is coverage of uses of letters of intent and how to draft them. The topics of subject to contract and conditional contracts are also given detailed treatment as is the issue of intention to create legal relations. Completing this part are chapters on certainty and a summary explaining pre-contracted liability in English law.

The second part of the work looks at the formation of the contract in process, providing full coverage of topics such as the mirror image rule, battle of laws and acceptance by silence. There is also a substantial chapter in this part examining the legal status of requests to submit tenders, tenders themselves, and obligations associated with the tendering process.

Although this work is set against an English law background, the authors draw upon decisions in other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand, where these inform the development of principles in English law.

Michael Furmston studied law at Oxford and taught at Birmingham, Belfast and Oxford before coming to Bristol in 1978 to be Professor of Law. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1960 and has been a Bencher of Gray's Inn since 1989. He is a member of the UNIDROIT working group which has produced a set of General Principles for International Commercial Contracts. Jill Poole is a Professor of Commercial Law and Deputy Director of the Centre for Legal Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has written several textbooks on contract law also published with OUP.