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Contract Law

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11 domain-specific abstractions whose origin domain is Contract Law.

  • Accord and satisfaction — A contract-law discharge in which parties agree to substitute a different performance and the debtor completes that performance, extinguishing the original obligation.
  • Blue pencil doctrine — A severability rule allowing a court to remove unenforceable contractual language while preserving the remainder when deletion leaves a coherent agreement without impermissible rewriting.
  • Date certain — A legally specified date on or by which a contractual act is to be completed.
  • Essentialia negotii — The legally indispensable terms that parties must settle for a particular kind of agreement to be sufficiently definite and capable of forming an enforceable contract.
  • Event of default — A contractually defined occurrence that activates specified remedies or enforcement rights for a nondefaulting party.
  • Exclusion clause — A contractual term seeking to exclude, limit or qualify a party’s liability, duty or remedy that would otherwise arise.
  • Integration clause — A contract provision declaring the writing to be the parties' complete and final agreement on its subject and superseding prior or contemporaneous negotiations and representations.
  • Invitation to treat — A communication inviting others to make offers rather than itself expressing a presently binding willingness to contract upon acceptance.
  • Mistake (contract law) — A contract-law doctrine governing when an erroneous belief existing at formation prevents agreement, makes a transaction void or voidable, or supports a limited remedy.
  • Penal damages — A stipulated contract sum characterized as punishment rather than a proportionate pre-estimate or protection of a legitimate interest, and therefore restricted or unenforceable in many common-law systems.
  • Voidable contract — A contract that is initially valid and enforceable but that an entitled party may rescind because of a recognized defect, unless that party affirms or loses the avoidance right.