Week 2 Notes

5 Pages • Topic Notes • Year Uploaded: 2024

Lecture 3 (W2): Considerations – price for the promise Bargain theory Involves a form of detriment Legal detriment = obligation to uphold the promise Estoppel – by definition there is no contract Commercial = benefit Cannot enforce a promise unless a price is paid for it (bare promise) Promise enforceable at common law only if supported by consideration (may be enforceable under equity under estoppel if it has been relied upon to the detriment of the promisee) or deed Historical Background: The commonwealth doc gone through changes – if a promise is proven it should be upheld (considerations no more than a rule of evidence) Pillans v Van Mierop (1765) Rann v Hughes 1778 – during industrial revolutions – increase in commerce and law of contract 1840 (Eastwood v Kenyon) - consideration reaches level of stability – nit a mere rule of evidence (recognition for common-law) Meaning Cognate with considerate however not fundamentally a moral concept. It is the idea of bargain of promises What is there to be done is still in the future Australian Woollen Mills v Commonwealth (1954) Plaintiff (Woollen Mills) claimed that a unilateral contract had arisen out of the Commonwealth government’s wool subsidy scheme. The scheme arose out of the wool scarcity after WW2, where the government subsidised purchases of wool by manufacturers of woollen products to allow those manufacturers to supply products at lower prices. 1946 – sent letters to manufacturers saying that it would pay a subsidy on all wool purchased for domestic use by Australian manufacturers and AWM purchased large quantities. 2 years later Commonwealth informed that they were discontinuing scheme but ensured that each manufacturer would have a certain amount of subsidised wool, however the amount held by AWM exceeded this and the Commonwealth required AWM to repay the subsidy on that amount, AWM sued to recover.

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