What Were the Principles of Nineteenth-Century Contract Law?

Abstract

Many of the nineteenth-century writers on English contract law asserted, expressly or by implication, that there were certain fundamental propositions, deserving of the name “principles” that had a special status as primary, foundational, or indisputable. But an answer to the question of precisely what these principles were proves surprisingly elusive. On several points apparently conflicting principles were entertained simultaneously, and held in a kind of tension. General considerations of common sense, convenience, and justice were not excluded, while appeal to the concept of principle supplied, in practice, a considerable measure of predictability and stability.