Commercial Agreement
A commercial agreement is a legally binding contract between two or more parties for the exchange of goods, services, or other valuable considerations. It outlines the terms and conditions of the business relationship, including payment terms, delivery schedules, and dispute resolution mechanisms. Commercial agreements are essential for establishing and regulating business transactions and are enforceable under contract law.
6 Key excerpts on "Commercial Agreement"
eBook - ePubAvoid Legal Pitfalls for Small Businesses
An essential reference guide to law and litigation for SMEs
- Bevans Solicitors(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Teach Yourself(Publisher)
...The law of contract is concerned with agreements where the parties undertake to do something (or, sometimes, not to do something). Let us look at the simplest possible commercial transaction to identify the agreement and see what the parties undertake to do. Suppose that I were to go into a newsagent’s to purchase a newspaper with the marked price of 50 pence. I say ‘ The Times, please.’ The newsagent puts The Times on the counter and says ‘Fifty pence, please.’ I pay him the money and leave with the paper. The only piece of paper involved is the newspaper itself, but the legal analysis of this transaction is that a contract has been both entered into and performed. The newsagent entered into an agreement with me. The terms of which were that he undertook to supply me with The Times and I undertook to pay him 50 pence. In other words, he assumed the obligation to supply a newspaper and I had a corresponding right to one, while I assumed the obligation to pay him 50 pence and he had a corresponding right to that sum. We both performed our obligations. With more substantial commercial contracts, the parties may wish to make a written record of the agreement or draw up a formal written agreement or there are standard terms. An agreement in writing has the great practical advantage of leaving less room for doubt about what the parties agreed and undertook to do. It is for this reason that substantial commercial transactions almost always have at their heart a written agreement which has been fully negotiated and reviewed by each party’s lawyers. FORM While common law imposes no specific form in line with freedom of contract, there are a number of examples of legislation requiring particular kinds of agreement to be in a particular form, and these are the exception to the general principle that the parties are free to enter into an agreement in any form they choose...
eBook - ePub- Richard Stone, James Devenney(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There are many minor Commercial Agreements (for example, the arrangement for newspapers to be delivered by a local newsagent) where the parties would be unlikely to consider it to be worth involving the courts to remedy a breach. Nevertheless, such agreements are clearly intended by the parties to affect their legal relations and to create binding obligations. 32 Moreover, even in relation to substantial commercial transactions, research has shown that parties often prefer to settle disputes in ways that do not involve recourse to lawyers. 33 This does not mean that they do not intend their agreements to be legally binding. As noted in Jones v Padavatton, 34 the fact that the parties would not be expected to sue each other may be relevant if such expectation is based on the relationship between the parties (for example, mother and daughter), but even then it cannot be conclusive. 32 That is, in the example just given, on the part of the newsagent to deliver papers each day, and on the part of the customer to settle the bill at regular intervals. See also the comments of Lord Cross in Albert v Motor Insurers’ Bureau [1971] 2 All ER 1345, p 1370, and Salmon LJ in Jones v Padavatton [1969] 2 All ER 616, p 622. 33 See, for example, Macaulay, 1963; Beale and Dugdale, 1975; Lewis, 1982. 34 [1969] 2 All ER 616. 4.4 Commercial AgreementS If the agreement is not a ‘domestic’ one, then it will be regarded as ‘commercial’. This means the presumption is that the agreement is intended to be legally binding. It was confirmed in Edmonds v Lawson 35 that this could include an agreement that was pri- marily educational – as with the agreement between a pupil barrister and her chambers. The trouble taken by the chambers in selecting pupils and the importance to the pupil of obtaining a pupillage suggested that the arrangement was not intended to be binding in honour only...
eBook - ePubThe International Distribution Agreement
A Practical Approach to Transnational Contracting across the European Union, the United States and Latin America (2nd edition)
- Marco Mastracci(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Universal-Publishers(Publisher)
...nature—will also be subject to the principles, definitions and, in general, to all the rules of commercial law of the State whose law governs the agreement. 1.3.B International laws The considerable differences among the legal systems involved in international trade have made it necessary to identify instruments and mechanisms capable of harmonizing or unifying the rules that regulate the same subject in different countries...
eBook - ePub- Kenny Chin(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...4 Contract Law You should be familiar with the following areas: • the essentials of contract and the effects of the absence of them • rules relating to offer, acceptance and invitation to treat • use of postal and other means of communication on offer and acceptance • rules of consideration • distinction of legal intention to contract on domestic and social agreements • capacity of minors to make contracts and the effect of the Minors’ Contracts Act 1987 • discharge of contract by frustration and the effects of the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 • breach of contract and the remedies • consumer contract and related provisions under various statutes • duties of employer and employee, sex and racial discrimination in employment Introduction A contract is an agreement between two or more parties, who promise to give and receive something from each other and who intend that the agreement be legally binding. Except for some special contracts, for example, sale of a house, there is no general legal requirement that a contract has to be in writing. Verbal contracts are as enforceable as written contracts. The problem with verbal contracts is not on validity but on evidence. When nothing is recorded in black and white it is difficult to prove who has said what. Contract law is categorised in the law of obligation. A contract creates a legal obligation between the contracting parties. When one party has not fulfilled, or is not going to fulfil the obligation, he can be sued for breach of contract. The court will help the innocent party by either ordering damages suffered to be compensated, compelling the party in breach to perform the contract (specific performance order) or prohibiting the wrongdoer to act in a way which would cause further breaches (injunction order). It is therefore important to know how and when a binding agreement has been created...
eBook - ePub- Jennifer Corrin-Care(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...As discussed in Chapter 1, a contract is a legally binding agreement made between two or more people who intend it to have legal effect. There are therefore two elements: an agreement and legal enforceability. This chapter discusses the first element, but is should always be borne in mind that not all agreements are legally enforceable. The other elements required for enforceability are discussed in later chapters. In order to have an agreement, you must have at least two parties. They are commonly called the ‘promisor’ and ‘promisee’. In the case of a unilateral contract, there is only one promisor and the promisee may accept the unilateral offer by taking the requisite action, but he or she is not required to give a promise in return. In the case of a bilateral contract, which consists of the mutual exchange of promises, both parties will be ‘promisors’ and ‘promisees’. Which party is being referred to depends on the context in which the words are being used. If the context does not make it clear, alternative terms, referring to the capacity of the parties in the contract, such as ‘vendor’ and ‘purchaser’ or ‘employer’ and ‘employee’, may be preferable. The parties must be of the same mind in order for an enforceable agreement to arise. This is sometimes referred to by using the Latin phrase consensus ad idem, which means ‘concurrence of intention’ or ‘meeting of the minds’. In deciding whether or not there has been a meeting of the minds, the courts adopt an objective approach. In other words, they look at the circumstances surrounding the alleged agreement and, in particular, what the parties have said and done, and ask themselves whether a reasonable person would conclude from that evidence that agreement has been reached. This is as opposed to a subjective approach, which attempts to find out what was present in the minds of the parties...
eBook - ePub- Max Young(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In such an instance the court will decide the case on its own merits and the case will then become precedent for future courts.1.5An overview of contract lawThe book deals with the following areas of contract law:• Agreement, offer and acceptance• Certainty• Consideration• Intention to create legal relations• Variation of contracts• Privity of contract• Terms of the contract• Exemption clauses• Misrepresentation• Remedies for breach of contract.1.6Agreement, offer and acceptanceAgreement, offer and acceptance together deal with the formation – the making – of contracts. Formation deals with such issues as when is the contract made? Where is the contract made (an ever important issue now that more goods are purchased over the worldwide web from abroad)? When is the order placed? When will the goods arrive?Formation is also very important in business contracts. When a business, Business ‘A’, orders goods or services on its own standard form contract is the contract made on their terms? What if their supplier ‘accepts’ Business ‘A’s order on their own standard form contract? Now on whose terms is the contract made; Business A’s terms or the supplier’s terms?1.7Certainty of termsSince the formation of a contract is all about agreement between the parties it is essential that both parties know exactly what has been agreed. This is where ‘certainty of terms’ comes in. ‘Certainty of terms’ deals with issues such as what is meant by ordering goods ‘on the usual terms’ from a regular supplier. What have the parties actually agreed? Are there regular terms between the parties? Are there different terms depending on what types of goods have been ordered? If the parties are not certain what they’ve agreed then there can be no contract between them.1.8Consideration and variation of contractsConsideration and variation of contract terms are important and related features of English contract law. English contract law is based on the idea of a bargain...
