TYPES OF ENGLISH
CIVIL LAW
Unit 29
Preview
 Contract: definition
 Requirements for a valid English contract
 Forms of contract
 Void and voidable contracts
 Breach of contract
 Torts: definition
 Types of tort
 Legal terms
 Exercise
English Civil Law
 Law of Contract
 Law of Tort
Definition of Contract
 “A legally binding agreement made
between two or more persons, by which
rights are acquired by one or more acts
or forbearances on the part of the other
or others”
 Agreement arises as a result of offer and
acceptance
Forebearance
 A deliberate failure to exercise a legal
right (e.g. to sue for debt)
Requirements for a valid
contract
 1. Offer, acceptance, consideration
 2. Intention to create legal relations
 3. Contractual capacity
 4. Formal legal requirements
Offer
 An indication of willingness to do or
refrain from doing something that is
capable of being converted by
acceptance into a legally binding
contract
Offer
 It is made by an offeror to an offeree
and is capable of acceptance only by an
offeree who knows of its existence
Acceptance
 Agreement to the terms of an offer that
converts the offer into a legally binding
contract
 Acceptance must involve some action on
the part of the offeree
Consideration
 The price, in money, goods, or some
other reward, paid by one person in
exchange for another person promising
to do something, which is an essential
element in the formation of a contract
Consideration
 Kompenzacija, poravnanje,
protuizvršenje; kod ugovora potrebno je
preuzimanje obveze, ali i razmjena
vrijednosti
Contractual capacity
 Competence to enter into a legally
binding agreement
 Persons lacking this capacity:
 minors, the mentally disordered, etc.
Forms of contract
 oral,
 written,
 partly oral and partly written, or
 implied from conduct
Void contract
 A contract that has no legal force from
the moment of its making
 Lack of capacity to contract, mistake,
illegal contracts
Voidable contract
 Liable to be set aside by one of the
parties on such grounds as
misrepresentation or undue influence
Breach of contract
 Failure by a party to perform his
obligations under that contract
Areas
 Shipping contracts,
 hire purchase,
 sale of goods, etc.
Definition of Tort
 Wrongs committed by one citizen
against another, serious enough to merit
the award of compensation to the injured
person, but not serious enough to
amount to the breaking of the criminal
law
Tort
 Civil liability
 Less serious wrongs which are not
punished by the state
Tort
 A wrongful act or omission for which
damages can be obtained in a civil court
by the person wronged, other than a
wrong that is only a breach of contract
Tort
 Compensation in the form of damages is
awarded to the injured party, after the
offender (tort-feasor) has been sued by
the person he has injured
Definition of tort
 Sir John Salmond: “A tort is a civil wrong
for which the remedy is a common law
action for unliquidated damages, and
which is not exclusively the breach of a
contract or a breach of a trust or other
merely equitable obligation.”
Damages
 A sum of money awarded by a court as
compensation for a tort or a breach of
contract
 The claimant is entitled to full
compensation for his losses
Types of damages
 Liquidated d. : a sum fixed in advance by
the parties to a contract as the amount to
be paid in the event of breach
 Unliquidated d: the amount fixed by the
court
Law of tort
 Concerned with providing compensation
for personal injury and property damage
caused by negligence
 Protects other interests, such as
reputation, personal freedom, title to
property, enjoyment of property,
commercial interests
Law of tort: types
 Negligence
 Nuisance
 Trespass
 Defamation (libel and slander)
Negligence
 1. Carelessness amounting to the
culpable breach of a duty; failure to do
sth that a reasonable person would do
 2. A tort consisting of the breach of the
duty of care resulting in damage to the
claimant
Nuisance
 Something that causes harm or
inconvenience to someone or to property
Tresspass
 The tort of interfering with the land or
goods of another person
Tresspass
 1. tresspass to goods (harming or
interfering with goods which belong to
someone else)
 2. tresspass to land
 3. tresspass to person (assault, false
imprisonment)
Defamation
 The act of injuring someone’s reputation
by maliciously saying or writing things
against him or her that are not true
 1. Libel (written d.)
 2. Slander (spoken d.)
Law of contract/law of tort
 Some torts: also breaches of contract
(e.g. negligent driving by a taxi-driver
that causes injury to his passenger- both
tort of negligence and breach of contract
to carry the passenger safely to his
destination)
Law of tort/criminal law
 Many torts are also crimes: e.g. assault,
dangerous driving
Assault
 An intentional or reckless act that causes
someone to be put in fear of immediate
physical harm
Assault
 Actual physical contact is not necessary
to constitute an assault (e.g. pointing a
gun at someone may constitute an
assault)
Other areas of civil law
 Family law
 Revenue law
 Patents and copyrights
 Trade unions
 Administrative law
Points to remember
 Two main areas of English civil law
 Definition of contract
 Elements of a contract
 Void and voidable contracts
 Definition of tort
 Types of tort
Legal terms
 Law of contract
 Ugovorno pravo
 Tort
 Šteta, štetna radnja, građanski delikt
 Law of Torts
 Građansko deliktno pravo
Legal terms
 Forebearance
 Nečinjenje (u građanskom pravu)
 Hire purchase
 Kupnja na kredit
Legal terms
 Civil liability
 Građanskopravna odgovornost
 Tort-feasor
 Počinitelj štete; počinitelj delikta (u
građanskom postupku)
 Sue
 Sudski goniti, pokrenuti postupak
Legal terms
 Unliquidated damages
 Neugovorena odšteta
 Liquidated damages
 Ugovorena odšteta (zbog neizvršenja
ugovora
Legal terms
 Trust
 Prijenos imovine na povjerenika;
fiducijarni odnos, povjereno upravljanje u
korist drugog; skrbništvo
Legal terms
 Negligence
 Nehaj, nemar, nepažnja
 Nuisance
 Smetnja, ometanje, uznemirivanje
 Tresspass
 Ometanje posjeda, povreda prava privatnosti,
bespravno stupanje na tuđi posjed
Legal terms
 Defamation
 Kleveta, uvreda
 Libel
 Pisana kleveta
 Slander
 Usmena kleveta
Legal terms
 Family law
 Obiteljsko pravo
 Revenue law
 zakon o prihodima
Exercise: What is a contract?
 Complete the text using the following:
agreement, breach, capacity,
consideration, damages, fraud, illegal,
obligation, oral, performance, property,
signed, terms
What is a contract?
agreement, breach, capacity, consideration, damages, fraud,
illegal, obligation, oral, performance, property, signed, terms
 It is an agreement that creates a binding
____ upon the parties. The essentials of
a contract are as follows: mutual ____; a
legal ____which in most instances need
not be financial; parties who have legal
____to make a contract; absence of
____or duress; and a subject matter that
is not ____or against public policy.
What form does a contract take?
agreement, breach, capacity, consideration, damages, fraud,
illegal, obligation, oral, performance, property, signed, terms
 In general, contracts may be either
___or written. Certain types of contracts,
however, in order to be enforceable,
must be written and ____. These include
contracts involving the sale and transfer
of _____.
How does a contract end?
agreement, breach, capacity, consideration, damages,
fraud, illegal, obligation, oral, performance, property, signed,
terms
 In case of a ____of contract, the injured
party may go to court to sue for financial
compensation (or ____), or for
rescission, for injunction, or for specific
performance if financial compensation
would not compensate for the breach.
Specific____of a contract is the right by
one contracting party to have the other
contracting party perform the contract
according to the precise___ agreed
Key:
 It is an agreement that creates a binding
obligation upon the parties. The
essentials of a contract are as follows:
mutual agreement; a legal
consideration which in most instances
need not be financial; parties who have
legal capacity to make a contract;
absence of fraud or duress; and a
subject matter that is not illegal or
against public policy.
Key
 In general, contracts may be either oral
or written. Certain types of contracts,
however, in order to be enforceable,
must be written and signed. These
include contracts involving the sale and
transfer of property.
Key
 In case of a breach of contract, the injured
party may go to court to sue for financial
compensation (or damages), or for rescission,
for injunction, or for specific performance of
financial compensation would not compensate
for the breach. Specific performance of a
contract is the right by one contracting party to
have the other contracting party perform the
contract according to the precise terms agreed