Intention to create legal relations

Revision as of 08:26, 11 April 2019 by Amwelladmin (talk | contribs)

But I never thought it would come to this....

There is some debate on whether the intention to create legal relations is a separate ingredient in a legally binding contract, or really just an evaluative description of what all the other ingredients (offer, acceptance and consideration) add up to.

Express contracts': Their worshipful honours have held[1] that in an “express” contract or an “ordinary commercial transaction”, the burden of proof is on she who alleges the absence of an intention (but really? if, in actually signing a legal agreement, you did not intend to create legal relations, then what on earth did you think you were doing?)

Implied contracts: Where offer and acceptance of a contract can only be implied from conduct, then there are authorities[2] that the person alleging the contract has the burden of proof. But this seems to be no more than a burden of proving offer and acceptance in the first place.

so while there is some judicial authority that the intention to create legal relations is a separate thing, but dammit, that legal authority, however binding it might be, is wrong.

As the maxim has it, anus matronae parvae malas leges faciunt.

This is a contrarian view, by the way. The clue is in the url.

See also

References

  1. Edwards v Skyways [1964] 1WLR 349
  2. The Aramis [1989] 1Lloyd’sRep 213[1]