The Role Of Law In The Common Law

The case of Jonah v White (2012) 48 FAM LR 562 wishes to appeal the original decision of Murphy J, in which his Honour asserted that the appellant, (“Ms Jonah”) and the respondent (“Mr White”) had not been in a de-facto relationship in correspondence with the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”). The appeal is bought before May, Strickland and Ainslie-Wallace JJ in the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia in Brisbane. The case seeks to question and determine what constitutes a law-binding de-facto relationship.

Courts traditionally presumed that commercial parties intent to create legal relations when entering into contracts, family members don 't. Albeit not without criticism, up to this point these twin presumptions seemed permanent. This article examines the pattern to lessening the emphasis on these presumptions by individuals from the judicial arena in determination of Australian cases and recommends that, following the High Court 's decision in Ermogenous v Greek Orthodox Community of SA Inc (2002) 209 CLR 95 intention to create legal relations presumptions ought to never again be utilised as a part of any setting. It concludes by considering the consequences for this area of law.

The particular focus of this essay is on how terms are implied. This is central because the courts intervene and impose implied terms when they believe that in addition to the terms the parties have expressly agreed on, other terms must be implied into the contract. Gillies argued that the courts have become more interventionist in protecting the rights of contracting parties thereby encroaching upon the notion of freedom of contract. The doctrine of freedom of contract is a prevailing philosophy which upholds the idea that parties to a contract should be at liberty to agree on their own terms without the interference of the courts or legislature. Implied terms can be viewed as a technique of construction or interpretation of contracts. It has been argued that the courts are interfering too much in their approach to determine and interpret the terms of a contract. The aim of this essay is to explore this argument further and in doing so consider whether freedom of contract is lost due to courts imposing implied terms. The essay will outline how the common law implies terms. The final part of the essay will examine whether Parliament, by means of a statute, or terms implied by custom restrict freedom in a contract. An overall conclusion on the issue will be reached.

In his article ‘Equitable Rights of Cohabitees’ Hayton suggested that the distinction between common intention constructive trusts and proprietary estoppel has, over time, come to be but illusory and goes on further to propose that since the general direction of the development of the law has been to embrace the principle of preventing and remedying unconscionable conduct regardless of whether the claim brought before them was originally brought under the concept of a constructive trust or proprietary

A legally binding promise must also always be supported by consideration, a prerequisite defined as “the exchange of promises from each party- from the promisor to the promisee”. There is uncertainty in whether the consideration offered in this situation is sufficient or not. Moral obligations regarding “natural love and affection” are not deemed to be sufficient consideration unless there is a legal obligation involved. Whether Billy’s initial decision to work on the farm creates a sufficient enough legal obligation for

Promisee must incur a detriment or confer a benefit on the promisor (Currie v Misa).

Explain why it is important to have an intention to create legal relations when making a contract and why is consideration of the parties to the agreement necessary-:

ANNECDOTE. The majority of the High Court in Clark v Marcourt, awarded damages of approximately A$1.2 million to the appellant, as the respondent was found guilty of breaching various warranties of the deed to purchase various property from a fertility centre, putting the appellant at a significantly better financial position than she would have been in had the breach not occurred. Prima facie, Clark seems to suggest undermining the compensatory principle in contract. ## This essay will analyse the decision in Clark through the doctrinal legal research method, using “normative” research. The aim of this research method is to answer the question of “what is the law” via logical reasoning and analysis of appropriate legal rules, and whether it applies to a particular factual situation.

A legal contract arises when there is an offer, acceptance of that offer and also a sufficient consideration to make the contact valid. There are five essential elements that make a contract legal and these includes;

Due to the different roots of the two systems, the definition of a contract, as well as its formation, differ between contract law in Common Law Jurisdictions and in Civil Law Jurisdictions (France). The Common Law views contracts as bargains, exchange, a simple agreement has no binding force. It is mainly concerned with forecasting the impact and the binding legal consequences of a party’s promise. The structure or purpose of the contract is not as important as knowing whether the promise of performance that the contract is based upon is enforceable.

The famous US decision of Riggs v Palmer serves to illustrate a considerable strength in Dworkin’s argument concerning rules and principles. The New York court had to decide a case to determine whether a grandson who poisoned his grandfather to obtain his inheritance was in fact able to collect such an inheritance. At the time, there existed no statute or law that invalidated his claim as a beneficiary due to his involvement in the murder. Furthermore, the applicable legal rule seemed to be that legacies contained in legally valid testamentary dispositions are to be guaranteed by law in accordance with the wishes of the testator. According to Hart, the court should, in this situation, be decided upon pre-existing law. Yet despite this, the court majority found that the grandson could not inherit, instead appealing to moral reasoning by citing the principle that no one should be able to profit from ones crimes. A similar decision based on principle was handed down 70 years later in the case of Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc. As a result of these cases, Dworkin is able

23). Essentially, a subjective approach would create uncertainty. It would not be safe to rely on a promise if the promisor was able to later deny that they ever intended to make such a promise. ‘Security of transactions is an essential characteristic of contract law.’ (Poole, 2006, p. 34). Arguably, the subjective approach is impractical. Parties may later express whatever suits their purpose at that time. In the words of Adams and Brownsword: ‘To found contract on a subjective approach, therefore, would impede commerce, invite fraud, and unfairly defeat good faith reliance on the natural meaning of a promise.’ (Adams and Brownsword, 2007, p. 48). As stated by Steyn LJ in the case of G Percy Trentham Ltd-v-Archital Luxfer (1993), ‘the governing criterion is the reasonable expectations of honest men, or what a reasonable man has been led to believe the position to be.’ (Poole, 2006, p. 35). Taking this into consideration, it would appear more practical to adopt an object approach and judge the parties on what they said and did at the time of agreement. Therefore, the objective stance does not necessarily empower the courts to impose their views on contracts. It does however, provide a more reasonable and pragmatic response to adjudicating disputes. This is mainly due to the fact that the parties are unable to state whatever suits their purpose at that time.

In the West London County Court proceeding were brought by Ghaidan. Judge Cowell granted a declaration that Godin-Mendoza did not succeed to the tenancy of the flat as the surviving spouse, but became entitled to an assured tenancy of the flat by succession as a member of the original tenant’s family.

A Contract requires several elements in order to be considered enforceable. However for the purpose of this essay we would explore one of these elements in order to effectively understand the controversial cases of Williams v Roffey Brothers and Nicholls (contractors) Ltd (1990) and Stilk v Myrick (1804). Before going any further one should briefly understand the doctrine of Consideration. Despite the vast amount of content written, the doctrine of consideration is still to this day unclear due to the inconsistency of the courts and its application of necessary rules. Consideration refers to that which the law deems as valuable in that the promisor receives from the promise that which was promised. In other words, it is the exchange of something of value between the parties in a contract. One should be mindful that in English law, every promise may not be legally enforceable; it requires the court to distinguish between are enforceable and non-enforceable obligations. This brings us to the controversial cases of Stilk v Myrick and Williams v the Roffery brothers. Many argue that that the case of Williams was wrongly decided leading to impairments in the rule initially established in Stilk v Myrick. This essay seek to analyse and critique the cases of Stilk v Myrick and Williams v Roffey Brothers and also highlight whether or not the new rule of Practical benefit lead to serious impairments in later cases.

Contractual agreement has always been viewed in terms of offer and acceptance. The universal principle to contract law has always been parties may get into an agreement in whichever way they deem fit and they are subject to certain terms as they choose. As far as legal requirements vital to their formation are binding contracts may be formed. Moreover a binding agreement may be manifested in terms of writing or in verbal form.