The Law of Contract: An Introduction

Abstract

The Maastricht European Law School offers a full programme designed to educate European lawyers. This poses a special challenge in terms of methods of teaching and development of teaching materials. This is in particular the case in the first year of study, in which students are introduced to the traditional fields of law (such as private law, criminal law and constitutional law) without focusing on one national jurisdiction: it is not Dutch, French, German or English law that is taught, but law as such. The present chapter is an attempt to provide first year students with such a ‘European’ introduction to the law of contract. It is used as part of the teaching materials in the first course of the Maastricht curriculum (Introduction to Law).

The chapter may also be useful for non-lawyers interested in the law of contract. It provides a brief account of how contracts come into being, how to establish their contents and what are the rights and obligations of the contracting parties.

Keywords: Contract law, Legal education, European Law School