Contract Law in Ireland

Contract Law in Ireland

In his descriptive book, Contract Law in Ireland 2008 Robert Clark provides readers with a comprehensive review of contract law in Ireland. To capture readers’ attention, the author emphasizes more on the recent developments made in relation to the law, contract agreement, and insurance laws. The research presents a detailed account of various areas where the law assumes an intention to create legal relations and other instances where the law fails to presume that there is an intention to create relation.

To begin with, Chen-Wishart (2005, p22) argues that intention to create a legal intention is also defined as intent to enter into a legally binding contract or agreement. This also refers to an intention to be staid about the significance of the agreement. With this definition in mind, the question that bothers many people is which areas does the law assumes the intent to create legal relations. As Mckendrick (2007, p11) puts it, the necessity  of intention to create legal relations is to eradicate cases that are not suitable for court action. With this requirement in mind, it is obvious that not every contract or agreement becomes a binding contract that can be implemented in the court. For instance, an individual may have an agreement to go for lunch with her friend. In this case, one has a moral or ethical duty to abide by the agreement but not a legal duty. This is because the two parties may not have a legal agreement to meet for lunch and thus, the law aims to fulfil or mirror the party’s wishes. To evaluate which contracts are legally binding and have objectives to create legal relations, the law differentiates between domestic and social agreements and those made in a commercial setting (Young 2010, p90).

Typically, the law does not assume an intention to create legal relations in domestic and social agreements. In these cases, the law raises the assumption that there is no written contract binding the parties (Gregory, Swisher, & Wolf 2005, p10). A perfect example of domestic and social agreement is a friend agreeing to meet for lunch. The law regards such instances as the moral obligations of both the parties to Honour the agreement. This is because the parties are not legally bound and for that reason the law establish the need to deter the action not suitable for court action (Mccamus 2005, p33). However, the court can only take action when there is a written agreement that obliges the parties to honour the contract (Jerry & Richmond 2007, p10). For instance, if a sister borrows a loan from her brother and they have a written agreement that the loan should be returned for a certain period, then a court can take action when the written agreement is not honored. Clark (2008, p10) argues that, a court can also take action when there are evidences to the agreement such as a 3^rd party. Thus far, one can argue that the law presumption is that domestic and social agreements are not intended to have legal force. Nevertheless, the law can rebut the presumption if families have a written agreement, or a wife and husband have an agreement and they are no longer living together (Reland 2006, p366).

However, the law presumes that there is an intention to create legal relations when there is a legal intent. In response to this, Ireland (2008, p19) argues that when a contract is made in the commercial set up, the law presumes that the parties should create legal relations by the agreement. When parties agree and negotiate in a business set up, the law assumes that the parties planned the agreement putting into consideration the legal impacts or consequences. In this case, Chuan-Fong, Dedrick & Kraemer (2005, p60) argue that the court can take a heavy action if one of the party fails to abide to the agreement. In other words, there are legal consequences associated with the commercial agreement. When making the decision, the court weighs options on whether the parties intended to form an agreement or a contract. If so, the party that fails to abide to the agreement has the right to undergo legal consequences. For instance, the court may take action on government activities such when a company not fulfilling its agreement or contract to manufacture vehicles despite being paid half the amount. In such cases, the court may need to decide the legal intent with the contracting parties. In reaction to this, Davenport (2008, p10) argues that government activities regard parties to enter into a contractual relation. Now, if a company fails to supply the vehicles demanded by the government, then the government can sue the company for breaching the agreement.

Nevertheless, the court may decide not to make legal relations in different ways (La Porta,  Lopez-De-Silanes, & Shleifer 2006, p10). These include when the agreement expresses that there should be no legal consequences flowing from the agreement or if the parties never had the intention to be into legal relations. For instance, if a company that agrees that for every improvement or profit made there should be an increase in workers’ salary and an employee present such a case to the court, the intention to form the agreement should be evaluated. In such instances, the court may access the improvement or profit made by the company and therefore judge on whether the Company is guilt for not fulfilling its written agreement or contract (Ireland 2005, p368). If there was a legal intention to form the agreement, the court may punish the company for not fulfilling the agreement. However, if there is no legal intention binding the agreement, the Company may not be found guilty for not rewarding employees.

According to Dutson (2006, p36), the presumption that emerges in the commercial context is that parties can only create or make legal relations by entering into the agreement. The presence of written agreement may help the court to establish the legal consequences. To determine the legal intent, the court evaluates the construction of the agreement and the circumstance or promises surrounding the agreement (Dana 2011, p13). With the intention to create legal intention, one law affirm that the parties can sue each other. This is because the parties may be legally binding and this may make the contract more promising. According to Gillard (2012, p10), when parties decide to have an agreement their mind understands the information and the laws binding the contract. This is because of the intention the both parties have in relation to the issue. If the intention is to create legal intentions, one should not that the contract would be binding, legal, and enforceable. Faulkner (2008, p10) argues that, if there is no legal agreement binding the parties, then the court can assume that the contract was illegal. In turn, the court may not find any party guilty because there is no legal document binding the team. With no intention to make legal relations, the law perceives the contract as a mere promise (St John Kennedy 2006, p74).

From the above analysis, one can highlight the differences between when the law makes a presumption to create legal relations and when they do not presume to create legal relations. The law presumes to make a legal intention when there there is legal intent binding the agreement. The court claims that, a written or a signed agreement is a perfect example of a legal binding agreement. In such cases, the party who fails to honour the agreement is bound to face the legal consequences. However, the law presumes not to make legal intention when there is no legal intent binding the agreement. Examples of these are social and domestic agreements where the contract may not be legally binding. In such an instance, the court regard that the party should take a moral obligation to honour the agreement. Nevertheless, the court can only take legal actions when there was a written agreement on social and domestic issues. The written agreement may indicate that the parties were entering into a legal contract, thus failure to abide by the agreement may cause one to face the legal consequences.
Conclusively, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis about the subject Intention to create legal relations. This research has discussed that, there must be a specific purpose of the parties to enter into an agreement. To express an intent, the parties may use various things such as written agreements or witnesses to impress the concept of legal obligation. In determining which case is suitable for court action, the law raises assumption on whether or not the parties should intend to create or make legal relations. In summary, this research affirm that the law assumes that the parties should not intend to create legal bindings in domestic and social agreements. The law regards that it is the moral duty of the parties to fulfil the agreement. Nevertheless, the law can rebut the presumption if there is a written agreement or in instances where a wife and husband have an agreement and they are no longer living together. Lastly, the parties should create legal relations in commercial agreements such as government contracts whereby there is a written agreement. In such instance, the court may take action on the party not fulfilling the agreement. When making decision, the court evaluates whether there was any form of agreement or a contract. If so, there are legal consequences associated with infringing the agreement. To sum up, the court can only take actions when there is law binding the agreement. However, if there is no legal document, the court assumes that the parties were not in a legal binding document. Therefore, this is research is significant as it educates readers on instances when the court takes action and when it does not.

 

Bibliography

Chen-Wishart, M. 2005, Contract law, Oxford [UK], Oxford University Press.

Chuan-Fong, S, Dedrick, J, & Kraemer, K 2005, ‘Rule of Law AND THE INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF E-COMMERCE’, Communications Of The ACM, 48, 11, pp. 57-62, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

Clark, R. 2008, Contract law in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland, Thomson Round Hall.

Dana, D. A. 2011, The Nanotechnology Challenge Creating Legal Institutions for Uncertain Risks, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Davenport, R. 2008, Fundamentals of Irish law, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan.

Dutson, S 2006, ‘A dangerous proposal for English lawyers’,International Financial Law Review, 25, 8, pp. 36-39, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

Faulkner, M. 2008, Essentials of Irish labour law, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan Ltd.

Gillard, C. 2012, Charities and not-for-profit entities: law and practice, London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill.

Gregory, J. D., Swisher, P. N., & Wolf, S. L. 2005, Understanding family law, Newark, NJ, LexisNexis.

Ireland, S 2005, ‘Criminal Law Legislation Update’, Journal Of Criminal Law, 69, 5, pp. 368-374, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

Ireland. 2008, Report: privity of contract and third party rights, Dublin, Law Reform Commission.

Jerry, R. H., & Richmond, D. R 2007, Understanding insurance law, Newark, NJ, LexisNexis Matthew Bender.

La Porta, R, Lopez-De-Silanes, F, & Shleifer, A 2006, ‘What Works in Securities Laws?’, Journal Of Finance, 61, 1, pp. 1-32, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

Mccamus, J. D. 2005, Law of contracts, Toronto, Irwin Law.

Mckendrick, E. 2007, Contract law, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

reland, S 2006, ‘Criminal Law Legislation Update’, Journal Of Criminal Law, 70, 5, pp. 366-371, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

St John Kennedy, A 2006, ‘Ireland’, International Financial Law Review, 25, pp. 71-75, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 March 2013.

Young, M. 2010, Understanding contract law, Abingdon, Oxon, London, Routledge-Cavendish.

 

 

 

 

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