Skip to content

cearta.ie

the Irish for rights

Menu
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Research

Category: Contract

The reform of French Contract Law

8 December, 201519 December, 2015
| 1 Comment
| Comparative Law, Contract

codecivil1804coversmall_2I. INTRODUCTION
At lunchtime today, Alexis Downe, lecturer in Toulouse University 1 Capitole and visiting lecturer here in Trinity, gave a staff seminar on “The reform of French Contract Law: a brief overview”. The fundamentals of French private law in general, and of the Law of Contract in particular, are largely unchanged in the Code civil (first edition cover pictured left) since it was adopted in 1804. Nevertheless, there have been significant social changes, from the nineteenth century’s industrial revolution, to the twentieth century’s two world wars, to the twenty-first century’s information age. In many ways, the current process of reform is intended to allow French contract law to catch up with these and other developments. In this post, I provide some background to the current process of reform of French contract law, and then discuss Alexis’s paper.

II. BACKGROUND
Earlier this year, I wrote a post on this blog about French reform of Contract Law in comparative context, constructed around Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson‘s article on “The French Contract Law Reform in a European Context” (2014) ELTE Law Journal 59. To the story told in that post should be added the English translation (pdf) (by John Cartwright and Simon Whittaker) of the Catala Avant-projet (pdf) and academic discussions of those drafts in England and France.…

Read More »

French reform of Contract Law in comparative context

8 June, 20158 December, 2015
| 1 Comment
| Comparative Law, Contract

I recently came across a special issue of the ELTE Law Journal to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the EU. The journal is published by the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences in Hungary’s oldest university, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, and one article in the issue particularly caught my eye (with added links):

Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson “The French Contract Law Reform in a European Context” (2014) ELTE Law Journal 59

I Introductory Remarks on the Development of the Law in Europe
… The civil and commercial law of each Member State is built upon three pillars, the national legal systems, EU law and the ECHR. While our national experiences influence one another, the law of the EU is built upon these reciprocal influences. In turn, our national legal systems are influenced by EU law. …

As European scholars, our role is primarily to train students to think comparatively, in order to build a common legal culture all over Europe … As European lawyers in the 21st century, our mission goes beyond comparative teaching. … Legal scholarship has played its role as a guide to the European legislator. … The same phenomenon may be observed in those of our countries where the recodification of important parts of the law is envisaged.

…

Read More »

If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is

4 March, 201320 August, 2019
| 2 Comments
| Consumer, Contract, Mistaken offers

VikingDirectThe image on the left is based on screen grabs taken by @jimboireland and @WayneDoyle___ (click through for a bigger size). It shows a ‘samsung 51″ series 4 3D plasma tv’ for sale on a retail website for “€6.49 plus VAT” (I’ve zoomed in on the price, just to make the point). This offer looked like it was too good to be true; and that’s exactly what it was – too good to be true. The €6.49 was a typo for €649. I have blogged about similar mistakes on the part of United Airlines, Aer Lingus, Dell, Best Buy, Arnotts, and Round Hall. This time, it was VikingDirect.ie – and, as the Irish Times and The Daily Edge are reporting, they have apologised to their customers, but are not going to honour the sale of the televisions at 1% of its retail price.

The customers will probably argue that they had contracts with the retailer, which the retailer must honour by selling the tvs at the knock-down prices. However, these contracts are subject to the website terms and conditions, section 5 of which details how the relevant contract is made: the customer’s order is an offer to purchase the goods on Viking’s conditions; and the offer is accepted, and the contract is made, when Viking send the customer an e-mail acknowledging the order.…

Read More »

The Contract in The Hobbit

21 December, 20124 February, 2013
| 3 Comments
| Cinema, television and theatre, Contract

Bilbo Baggins Contract, via AmazonFollowing on from my posts about the contract law issues in Shrek Forever After and The Muppets, another major movie brings us interesting contract law issues: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey (blog | facebook | imdb | official site | twitter | wikipedia).

Warning: plot spoilers Bilbo Baggins is a typical hobbit, enjoying his quiet life in the Shire, when he is manoeuvred by the wizard Gandalf the Grey into hosting dinner for a company of dwarves. They tell him the story of how they lost their kingdom of Erebor and its great treasure to the terrifying dragon Smaug, and how they are now on a quest to reclaim their kingdom and treasure under the leadership of the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Moreover, since a company of thirteen (twelve dwarves, and Gandalf) invites bad luck, they tell him that Gandalf had proposed him as a fourteenth member, as a burglar. Bilbo and the dwarves are unconvinced, but Gandalf re-assures them that Bilbo will prove more than up to the task when the time comes (“Hobbits can pass unseen by most if they chose which gives us a distinct advantage” in sneaking past Smaug), so the dwarves present Bilbo with a contract to join the company (script | video clip, via blog and YouTube):

Thorin: Give him the contract.

…

Read More »

Indentured servitude and a power akin to undue influence – contract reasoning in Pringle (ESM) and Sebelius (Obamacare)

15 November, 201228 November, 2012
| 1 Comment
| Contract, Irish Supreme Court, US Supreme Court

Bill of Sale for 100 Pounds for 'One Boy Named Limrick' (sic) from Mark Guthry to John Nealson in Charleston, SC March 1742Occasionally, Contract Law principles infiltrate into constitutional discourse. Two recent Supreme Court decisions illustrate the point, one from Ireland, the other from the US. Each relates to an issue of major political controversy and constitutional contention; and, in each, contractual reasoning is at the heart of a significant aspect of the judgments.

In the Irish case of Pringle v Government of Ireland [2012] IESC 47 (19 October 2012) (noted here), the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s decision to refer to the Court of Justice of the European Union various questions of EU law relating to the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism (the ESM Treaty). In considering whether the ESM Treaty abrogated Irish sovereignty (in Articles 5, 6 and 28 of the Constitution) sufficiently to require an amendment to Article 29 of the Constitution to permit its ratification, Clarke J picked up on Hederman J’s dictum in Crotty v An Taoiseach [1987] IR 713, [1987] IESC 4 (9 April 1987):

The State’s organs cannot contract to exercise in a particular procedure their policy-making roles or in any way to fetter powers bestowed unfettered by the Constitution.

As a consequence, he analysed the sovereignty issue in contractual language:

8.3 … in international relations, as in very many other areas of public and private life, freedom to act will often, as a matter of practicality, involve freedom to make commitments which will, to a greater or lesser extent, limit ones freedom of action in the future.

…

Read More »

When an airline website makes a mistaken offer, do terms and conditions apply?

26 July, 201220 August, 2019
| 4 Comments
| Contract, Mistaken offers

Image of Hong Kong by Paul Hilton/Bloomberg via Chicago Tribune/LA TimesWhen a website makes a mistaken offer which customers then accept, contracts may very well result. However, that is only a small part of the story. The mistake may mean that there really is no contract. Or the website’s terms and conditions may protect them (though there are some situations in which such terms might not be enforceable).

This kind of mistake is a pretty regular occurrence, and it happened to United Airlines over the weekend. Via the Gulliver blog on the Economist website, I learn of the following story in the Chicago Tribune:

United Airlines error sells Hong Kong flights for 4 miles

United Airlines customers with reward miles were able to book tickets over the weekend to Hong Kong for only four miles, plus taxes and fees, because of a programing error, according to the airline.

A round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong typically starts around $1,800 or 60,000 reward miles under the MileagePlus reward program.

But because of a programing error, some United passengers who booked flights to, from or through Hong Kong were charged only four miles plus taxes and fees, which amount to about $35. …

United Airlines have cancelled the tickets, though it is not clear to me that this is permitted in Rule 5 of United’s Contract of Carriage (and it may run afoul of the US Department of Transportation rules).…

Read More »

The Muppets and Contract Law

24 April, 20127 November, 2012
| 2 Comments
| Cinema, television and theatre, Contract

The 'Stardard Rich and Famous Contract' in the Muppet Movie, via the Muppet wikiaI’ve recently had the great good fortune to see The Muppets (2011) (imdb | official site | wikipedia). Like the recent classic movie Shrek Forever After, it is very much a movie about contract law: indeed, both movies turn on cultural assumptions about the binding nature and literal enforcement of written contracts.

Warning: plot spoilers At the end of The Muppet Movie (1979) (imdb | wikipedia), the Muppets are hired by studio executive Lew Lord (played – in a splendid cigar-chomping movie-stealing cameo – by Orson Welles) under “the standard rich-and-famous contract” (pictured above left). It has the generally assumed form of contracts: it is long; indeed, it is vveerry long – it contains a multitude of clauses, and those terms are the heart of the new movie: The Muppets. Nancy Kim on Contracts Prof Blog mentions a few of the issues:

… the star of the new Muppets movie is a long, scrolled, fine print contract signed by none other than Kermit the Frog. The entire plot hinges on … a condition in the contract … A real live condition – but is it a condition precedent or condition subsequent? In addition, there are issues of nondisclosure (there’s oil under the theatre, but the evil Tex Richman isn’t telling).

…

Read More »

Reform of Contract Law

13 April, 20127 November, 2012
| No Comments
| Contract

Not only is the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) undertaking a comprehensive review of Scots Contract Law in light of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) of Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law, but the Australian Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, has just released a discussion paper to explore the scope for reforming Australian Contract Law.

Scottish Law Commission logo, via their siteThe most recent discussion paper produced by the SLC discusses contract formation for the electronic age (DP 154, March 2012, pdf). It follows an earlier discussion paper with interpretation of contract (DP 147, Feb 2011, pdf), and a joint project (pdf) with the Law Commission of England and Wales on the proposed Common European Sales Law. Moreover, the SLC intend to publish further discussion papers, including one in the near future on remedies for breach of contract. Chapter 9 of the contract formation discussion paper contains 51 questions, and the Appendix contains some draft statutory provisions, drawn from various European texts.

Australian AG logo, via their siteThe Australian review is equally as ambitious. The discussion paper (doc | pdf) aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of commercial and consumer transactions; and it therefore considers whether Australian contact law could be reformed to:

  • enhance accessibility, certainty and simplicity
  • set standards of conduct
  • better support innovation and participation in the digital economy
  • better meet the evolving needs of businesses particularly small and medium businesses
  • make the law more elastic to promote long-term relationships, and
  • harmonise and internationalise contract law.
…

Read More »

Posts navigation

Previous 1 2 3 … 10 Next

Welcome

Me in a hat

Hi there! Thanks for dropping by. I’m Eoin O’Dell, and this is my blog: Cearta.ie – the Irish for rights.


“Cearta” really is the Irish word for rights, so the title provides a good sense of the scope of this blog.

In general, I write here about private law, free speech, and cyber law; and, in particular, I write about Irish law and education policy.


Academic links
Academia.edu
ORCID
SSRN
TARA

Subscribe

  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Recent posts

  • Supermarket website mistakenly lists premium whisky for £2.50 – do their inconsistent terms and conditions apply?
  • The Aeolus Episode in Ulysses and the Freeman’s Journal: Chief Baron Palles and the law of defamation
  • Garda use of facial recognition technologies unnecessary and disproportionate. It may have significant chilling effects, altering how people use public and online spaces
  • Dystopia and dysaguria on the fourth birthday of the GDPR’s application
  • Mistaken payments and criminal liability – a cautionary tale from South Africa
  • Frances Haugen, Facebook whistle-blower, in conversation with Jess Kelly, tech correspondent with Newstalk fm, in the Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, at 5pm on Monday 21 March 2022
  • Convenience as consideration? Payment for good consideration as a defence to a claim to restitution for unjust enrichment

Archives by month

Categories by topic

Recent tweets

Tweets by @cearta

Licence

Creative Commons License

This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. I am happy for you to reuse and adapt my content, provided that you attribute it to me, and do not use it commercially. Thanks. Eoin

Credit where it’s due

Some of those whose technical advice and help have proven invaluable in keeping this show on the road include Dermot Frost, Karlin Lillington, Daithí Mac Síthigh, and
Antoin Ó Lachtnáin. I’m grateful to them; please don’t blame them :)

Thanks to Blacknight for hosting.

Feeds and Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© cearta.ie 2022. Powered by WordPress