Table Of ContentVanishing Contract Law
English contract law provides the invisible framework that underpins and
enablesmuchcontractingactivityinsociety,yettheroleofthelawinpolicing
many of our contracts now approaches vanishing point. The methods by
which contracts come into existence, and notionally create binding obliga-
tions, have transformed over the past forty years. Consumers now enter into
contracts through remote and automated processes on standard terms over
whichtheyhavelittlecontrol.Thisbookexploresthesubstantiveweakeningof
the institution of contract law in a society heavily dependent on contracts. It
considers significant areas of contracting activity that affect many people but
that escape serious and sustained legal scrutiny. An accessibly written and
succinct account of contract law’s past, present and future, it assesses the
implications of a diminished contract law and the possibilities, if any, for
its revival.
Catherine Mitchell is a reader in private law at the University of Birmingham.
She has published widely on contract and has been cited by the House of
Lords, the Singapore Court of Appeal and the Law Commissions of England
and Scotland.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Vanishing Contract Law
Common Law in the Age of Contracts
CATHERINE MITCHELL
UniversityofBirmingham
Published online by Cambridge University Press
