Contract Law

Pix4free

I would like to begin by wishing all reading this a very merry Christmas. May this season of joy and giving bring peace into your hearts and lives. May you all also have an amazing New Year. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read these blogs. Thank you.

Contracts are nearly everywhere in the modern day world. From the privacy and preferences that appear on nearly every app and website to real estate contracts, they are everywhere. Being so prevalent in the modern day world, it is becoming necessary for the vast majority of the public to acknowledge and understand the laws that uphold contracts. This blog aims to tackle this very issue that is so prevalent in modern day society. Along with explaining the laws that tie into contracts, this blog will look into the case Beall v. Beall to further enhance the understanding of readers’ knowledge on contracts. 

As defined by Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, contracts are agreements among two different parties “creating mutual obligations that are enforceable by law.” In other words, contracts are agreements between two people that have legal repercussions if broken. However, not all contracts made between people are legally enforceable. In order to be legally enforceable, contracts require four core features. These features are “mutual assent, consideration, capacity, and legality. Mutual assent defines mutual consent, in other words whomever is signing  to the contract must be fully consenting to the contract’s contents. The second requirement, consideration, explains how the contracts must have both parties have something that they are giving in the contracts. In other words both pirates must in some way be “obligated” in the contract. The third requirement, capacity, explains how the person agreeing to the contracts must be able to understand it (age, mental ability…). Finally, legality explains how the contracts must be agreeing to legal actions.

Rawpixel

Laws that govern contracts often stem from three possible areas. The first is common law, or laws made by judges and past cases involving contracts. The second possible area is statutory law. Statutory law is laws made by the legislature. Statutory law and common law are not the same thing as common law originates from decisions made from past cases and statutory from laws made by legislature regardless of how they have been implemented in cases. Finally, private laws made among the parties involved in the contracts may also be the governing laws of a contract. It is important to note even if not “formally a contract” if certain agreements have elements of contractual law, they can be considered as contracts in a court of law. 

Breach of contracts is when contracts agreed upon are broken, resulting in legal repercussion. Primarily, if a contract does not have all certain necessary qualities of a lawful contract breach of contract can not be argued. This is due to the fact that the contract is not begging to be recognized by the court. In order to resolve any loss from the non-breaching party, remedies are in place to give the non-breaching party what they would have gotten should the contracts not have been breached. The breaching party may be charged with any foreseeable consequences and the breached party may not get any more than what they would have. 

In summary, contracts are extremely relevant in modern times. Contracts are only valid and can only be agreed in certain situations. Not all contracts are valid, some agreements may be considered contracts. 

Thank you, and once again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

“Contract.” Cornell Legal Information Institute, October 2025, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/contract.