Koffman, Macdonald & Atkins' Law of Contract

Abstract

Koffman, Macdonald & Atkins’ Law of Contract provides a clear, academically rigorous, account of the contract law which is written in a style which makes it highly accessible to university students new to legal study. It works from extensive consideration of the significant cases, to provide students with a firm grounding in the way the common law functions. There are chapters on formation, certainty, consideration, promissory estoppel, intention to create legal relations, express and implied terms, classification of terms, exemption clauses, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, unfair terms in consumer contracts, mistake, misrepresentation, duress and undue influence, illegality, unconscionability, privity, performance and breach, frustration, damages, and specific enforcement, as well as companion website chapters on capacity and an outline of the law of restitution. Recent cases which are of particular note in this, the tenth edition, include the Supreme Court cases of: Wells v Devani (2019) on interpretation and implied terms, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation v Times Travel (UK) Limited (2021) on lawful act economic duress, Morris- Garner v One-Step (Support) Ltd (2019) and Triple Point Technology Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd (2021) on the law of damages, and Tillman v Egon Zehnder (2019) on illegality and severance, re-affirmed in the Court of Appeal ruling in Quantum Actuarial LLP v Quantum Advisory Ltd (2021). Further important Court of Appeal decisions include: TRW v Panasonic (2021) on ‘battle of the forms’, Ark Shipping v Silverburn Shipping (2019) on classification of terms, FSHC Holdings v GLAS Trust (2019) on the equitable remedy of rectification, considered within the chapter on the doctrine of mistake, and Classic Maritime Inc v Limbungan Makmur (2019) on the interpretation of force majeure clauses and the scope of the doctrine of frustration, issues which rapidly elevated in significance leading up to Brexit and upon the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Notable first instance decisions which have tested frustration in light of these events include Canary Wharf (BP4) T1 Ltd and others v European Medicines Agency (2019) in the context of Brexit, and Salam Air SAOC v Latam Airlines Group SA (2020) on the impact of Covid-19. Additional High Court rulings considered within this edition include Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Saeed Bin Shakhboot Al Nehayan v Ioannis Kent (2018) and Bates v Post Office Ltd (2019) on good faith, and Neocleous v Rees (2019) on electronic signatures coupled with the findings of the Law Commission Report on Electronic Execution of Documents (2019) Law Com No 386.