CONTRACT LAW ASSESSED COURSEWORK Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CONTRACT LAW ASSESSED COURSEWORK - Term Paper Example The Postal Rule The foremost instance of the Postal Rule was established in the case of Adams v Lindsell  (1818), which established the following point: â€Å"  it would be impossible to complete any contract through the post; if the defendants were not bound by their offer until the answer was received, then the plaintiffs would not be bound until they had received word that the defendants had received their acceptance, and this could go on indefinitely† The judge gave his point, where he describes what a postal rule is. The Postal Rule is an exception to the common rule of offer and acceptance. Under the common practice of contract formation and application, the acceptance takes place only when it is communicated to the offerror. Until and unless the acceptance has not been communicated, a contract cannot be formed between the two parties. However, the Postal Rule has a different practice when it comes to the communication of the acceptance of the offerree. Under the Pos tal Rule, the acceptance takes place when the letter is posted, which is contrary to what is usually practiced under the Contract Law in Common Law countries. In the case of Dunlop v Higgins (1848), the law was laid down which confirmed the earlier judgment in the Adam’s case, where it was mentioned that â€Å"posting of a letter confirming the acceptance involves the binding of the contract, even if the letter never arrived to the offerror†. There are theories which go against this judgment, especially in the days of emailing when sending and receiving mail has become lightning fast, and therefore, this rule should stand to be invalid and obsolete, as we shall discuss later in this paper. Let us look at the philosophy of the Postal Rule, and try to gauge the reasons behind the implantation of such a rule as an exception to the most basic principles of contract law. The Postal Rule was established to ease the communication lags during the 19th century between the offer re and the offerror. A post mail used to take quite a lot of time in order to reach the other party, and in performance of time bound contracts, the general rule of acceptance only valid when communicated became difficult to enforce upon the parties, as it would take days and weeks to communicate the acceptance, and in such time the whole purpose of the contract would melt down and become impotent. (1879) Therefore, in order to curb the drawbacks of the post mail communication, the Postal Rule was established, which eased the general rule of acceptance, and allowed the parties, to enter into contracts without fulfilling the need to communicate the other of his/her acceptance by mail, which included the posting of the acceptance letter and the subsequent time attached to it in order for the acceptance to reach the offerror. The rule came into play to reduce the time taken to communicate the order of acceptance, and now by just mailing the acceptance, and not having to wait until the mail was received by the offerre, the contract had been formed. The rational behind the postal rule is that it encourages contracting by parties at a distance by making the person in the position of giving an acceptance just as secure as if the contract was being made face to face. Along with this proposition, another point which helped in the cause of its establishment was that it was a faster way of contracting between the