Subjects:

Contract Law

Contents:

General editor's preface

Contributors

Table of legislation

Abbreviations

1. Some perennial problems

2. Contemporary solutions: Case 1: promises of gifts

Case 2: promises of compensation for services rendered without charge

Case 3: promises to pay debts not legally due

Case 4: a promise to come to dinner

Case 5: promises to store goods without charge

Case 6: promises to do a favour

Case 7: promises to loan goods without a charge

Case 8: a requirements contract

Case 9: promises to pay more than was agreed I

Case 10: promises to pay more than was agreed II

Case
11. Promises to do more than was agreed

promises to waive a condition

Case 12: promises to take less than was agreed

Case 13: options given without a charge

Case 14: promises of rewards

Case 15: promises of commissions

3. Comparison

Index by country

Index by subject.

Civil law and common law systems are held to enforce promises differently: civil law, in principle, will enforce any promise, while common law will enforce only those with 'consideration'. In that respect, modern civil law supposedly differs from the Roman law from which it descended, where a promise was enforced depending on the type of contract the parties had made. This volume is concerned with the extent to which these characterizations are true, and how these and other differences affect the enforceability of promises. Beginning with a concise history of these distinctions, the volume then considers how twelve European legal systems would deal with fifteen concrete situations. Finally, a comparative section considers why modern legal systems enforce certain promises and not others, and what promises should be enforced. This is the second completed project of The Common Core of European Private Law launched at the University of Trento.