Month: December 2020

For many students, contract law is a topic which they study in their first semester of their first year. There is a clear reason for this: contract law is a building block for many other legal topics. And it is also a topic that allows students to understand its practical application. Which students have not, for example, bought something in a shop? But contract law is more than an introductory topic: it is one which pervades throughout many other areas of law. Rarely does a day go past for any practitioner when they are not considering contractual principles. For example, practitioners have recently dusted off textbooks to consider whether Brexit is an event of frustration (the Court of Appeal said ‘no’ in the context of a lease in Canary Wharf (BP4) v European Medicines Agency [2019]).

It is therefore important for students to have a solid understanding of contract law principles, and to have an excellent textbook not just for contract law modules but also for other related modules (including commercial law, consumer law, employment law and property law). Being part of Oxford University Press’ Core Text Series, O’Sullivan & Hilliard’s The Law of Contract by Janet O’Sullivan aims to provide an essential guide for undergraduate and GDL students.  To my mind, there are very few which are better than O’Sullivan & Hilliard’s The Law of Contract: it provides one of the clearest and most coherent introductions to this fascinating and important area of law.

O’Sullivan & Hilliard’s The Law of Contract, now in its ninth edition, is split into eighteen chapters: general themes and issues; offer and acceptance I: general principles; offer and acceptance II: two related principles; certainty; consideration and estoppel; privity; terms of the contract I; terms of the contract II: common law and statutory control on unfair terms; misrepresentation and non-disclosure; duress; undue influence; unconscionable bargains; common mistake and rectification; frustration; discharge of a contract for breach; remedies I: compensatory damages; remedies II: specific remedies; and remedies III: other non-compensatory remedies.  There are also two chapters on the Online Resource Centre (“ORC”): incapacity; and illegality and public policy. The ORC also provides a wealth of additional material (including guidance on questions in the book and web links).

Readers old enough to remember the early editions of O’Sullivan & Hilliard’s The Law of Contract will no doubt have fond memories of a well-written and superbly balanced text. These features continue to shine through this latest edition. It continues its reputation of providing a succinct narrative on basic contractual principles while, at the same time, expanding on those issues requiring a fuller consideration.  The material is clearly set-out and well cross-referenced allowing further research.  Each chapter includes a summary and suggestions for further reading: this is ideal for independent research.  This latest edition incorporates some of the latest changes including the UK Supreme Court’s decision in MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited v Rock Advertising Limited [2019] on consideration and oral variation and Wells v Devani [2019] on contract formation, certainty and implied terms.

I wholeheartedly recommend O’Sullivan & Hilliard’s The Law of Contract. There are few, if any, better introductory contract law texts. The material is (and always has been) succinct and accessible.  Key issues are given sufficient analysis without skimming over the key principles (which is often a problem for introductory texts).  If you are a student, you should not be without it.  If you are a practitioner, it should be a text which remains close to hand.  It is one of those texts which I keep close to hand and continue to consult on a regular basis (and will no doubt do so for many years to come).

Reviewed on 30 December 2020