Preface

PREFACE

Contract law is an important and dynamic area of law, impacting on a broad spec-

trum of relationships. This spectrum ranges from complex commercial transactions,

to everyday interactions between individual consumers and retailers. Not only is

contract law pervasive in everyday life, it is also a compulsory topic of study for law

students, including those reading for the LLB degrees in Caribbean universities and

those following paralegal courses in the various colleges of further education in the

region. It is also an area which most legal practitioners will encounter at some point

in their careers, and one which is of major importance in the business sector.

In producing this text, we have endeavoured to fi ll a gap in the fi eld by providing

students with an accessible analysis of the basic principles of contract law. To this

end, this fi rst edition collates and analyses selected Commonwealth Caribbean and

English cases on contract law, including both reported and unreported Caribbean

judgments, which demonstrate the application of key contractual principles in the

context of issues most relevant to the region. It is hoped that practitioners and

students will fi nd the collection of unreported Caribbean judgments in the text to be

a useful resource.

The text deals with the following concepts in turn, focusing on the principles

which are most relevant for students and which are applicable in the specifi c context

of the Commonwealth Caribbean: contracts as distinguished from other types of

legal relationship; formation of contracts; capacity to enter into contracts; contrac-

tual terms; contracts for the sale of goods, including unfair terms; instances where

contracts are void or voidable; privity of contract and agency; the discharge of

contractual obligations; and remedies for breach.

Gilbert Kodilinye

Maria Kodilinye

20 June 2013