An agreement can have offer, acceptance, and consideration and still not be a contract. The law also asks whether the parties actually intended to be legally bound. This matters every day in practice: a solicitor must be able to tell a client whether a handshake, an email exchange, a family arrangement, or a letter of comfort creates real obligations — or none at all. Getting this wrong means advising a client they can sue when they can't, or that they're safe when they're exposed.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step:
- The Doctrine and How Intention Is Assessed — what the requirement is, the objective test the law applies, and the two presumptions that set the starting point and shift the burden of proof.
- Domestic and Social Agreements — why arrangements between family and friends are presumed not to be binding, and the factors that can rebut that presumption.
- Commercial Agreements — why business deals are presumed binding, and the two main ways that presumption is displaced: advertising 'puffs' and honour clauses.
- Specific Devices and Documents — how 'subject to contract', comfort letters, and collective agreements operate, and when conduct can override a label.
By the end, you'll be able to look at any agreement and judge whether the law treats it as enforceable.