What are the purposes of the rules about offer and acceptance with regard to the formation of contracts?

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 4 essays on Contract Law that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

First Year

Law of Obligations (contract formation)

67%

What are the purposes of the rules about offer and acceptance with regard to the formation of contracts?

A traditional approach to the theory of the formation of a contract is similar to the laissez faire ideology of contract law - that is, parties are left to form their own contracts on their own terms at their own will. When deciding whether a contract indeed existed between two parties, a subjective approach was taken where all that was needed was a 'meeting of minds' between the parties to create legal obligations between them1. In more recent years, this subjective approach has been abandoned in favour of an objective approach to both parties' intentions, that is to say, per Lord Blackburn in Smith v Hughes2: "Whatever a man's real intention may be, he so conducts himself that a reasonable man would believe that he was assenting to the terms proposed by the other party, and that other party upon that belief enters into a contract with him....he would be equally bound as if he had intended to agree to the other party's terms."

This means