act to serve as an immediate fit for the commercial possibilities that are burgeoning. There have, however, been attempts to develop international principles that should be optional to apply to contract law, for example by UNIDROIT.
Almost universally, the legal analysis of a contractual agreement as comprising an offer which is met by an unqualified acceptance is adopted. This can be a rather simple concept but gives rise to a plethora of complicated practical problems. Normally, if the parties to a contract did not communicate face-to-face, the mode of communication can have a bearing on the questions where, when and how a contract was formed.
It is possible to identify certain principles that have been recognised in the distinct legal systems of the U.K.
1) Offers are to be distinguished from ‘invitations to treat’, ‘expressions of intent’, ‘unilateral promises which are capable of acceptance’, and ‘agreements to agree’.
2) An acceptance is made when it is intelligibly communicated to the offeror by word or deed so as to demonstrate unqualified acceptance at a time when the offer is open for acceptance.
3) The offeror may stipulate the mode of acceptance.
4) An offer which has not been met by an unqualified acceptance, but by a qualified acceptance, has been rejected.
5) Governments may act to outlaw terms that are unfair or prohibit certain transactions as against public policy, public security or public morality.英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】
One of the biggest problems in contract law concerns the situation where products are advertised in a shop window. What is the legal position of the shop window display? New technology has produced the problem of the goods being displayed on the website. Is this display analogous to the position of goods in the shop window?
Under British law, we resolve this problem through the invitation to treat doctrine. The seller is not bound to sell those goods in the window. The prospective buyer takes the goods to the till, where he/she offers to buy the goods and the shopkeeper accepts the offer to buy. The shopkeeper does not have to accept your offer.
Another example of the problems can arise with regard to automatic dispensing machines/kiosks and self service machines. Is a self-service petrol pump a standing offer to sell petrol to the world at large, which is accepted by the customer appropriating it? The usual answer would be that it is; and this might be contrasted with a customer taking beer from a shelf in a supermarket and drinking it on the spot, and the same customer presenting the beer at the checkout along with payment. It is clearly arguable that goods described on a website might be regarded as equivalent to being in a shop window; but it is also common for e-retailers to invite web customers to collect virtual goods in a virtual shopping trolley, represented by an icon. In both cases the suggestion would be that the customer has to make the offe
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