Law of Contract and Commercial Transactions
Core concepts
Build the contract from offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, and certainty. Study invitation to treat versus offer, the postal and instantaneous communication rules, and revocation. Examine terms: express, implied, incorporated by notice or course of dealing, and exclusion clauses tested against statutory controls. Master misrepresentation, mistake, duress, undue influence, frustration, and remedies (damages, specific performance, injunction). In commercial transactions, know sale of goods, bills of exchange, and agency.
Traps
Questions confuse offer with invitation to treat (advertisements, displays, auctions). Acceptance must be communicated; silence is not acceptance. Consideration must move from the promisee but need not be adequate. The parol evidence rule does not exclude all extrinsic evidence. Distinguish conditions, warranties, and innominate terms for remedy purposes.
Worked example
A shop displays goods at a low price. That is an invitation to treat; the customer makes the offer, which the shop may refuse. If the shop advertises a reward for information, that is a unilateral offer accepted by performance, and the offeror cannot revoke once performance has begun.
Rule of thumb
For every problem: identify parties, promises, consideration, terms, breach, and remedy. Test exclusion clauses for incorporation, construction, and statutory reasonableness.