Offer And Acceptance Analysis

Generally, formation of a contract involves two steps which symbolize collectively mutual assent, they are offer and acceptance. Offer and acceptance analysis is a traditional approach in contract law used to determine whether an agreement exists between two parties. According to the classical system of contract "... to constitute a contract, there must be an offer by one person to another and an acceptance of that offer by the person to whom it is made. A mere statement of a person's intention or a declaration of his willingness to enter into negotiations is not an offer and cannot be accepted so as to form a valid contract"

Taking this one stage further, the requirement of offer and acceptance suggests that the parties’ intentions determine

The problem of whether a unilateral offer can be accepted by part performance has caused difficulties for the courts. It can be argued that since the offeree has not promised to complete performance, they are free to stop at any time, so the offeror should be equally free to revoke the offer at any time. This is generally considered unjust and various academics have expressed the view that in fact an offer cannot be withdrawn once there has been substantial performance. As reasoned by the academics, it might be more realistic to say that offer itself is accepted by the beginning rather than completing performance, on the basis that acceptance simply means agreement to the terms of the offer, and there are many circumstances in which beginning performance will mean just that. Take the case of Errington v Errington&Woods as example, which a father bought and mortgaged a house in his own name for his son and daughter-in-law to live in and promising that, when they had paid off the mortgage, he would transfer legal title to them. The father later died and other family members sought possession but failed. Lord Denning explained “the father’s promise was unilateral contract…the house in return for…paying the instalments. It could not be revoked…once the couple entered on performance…but it would cease to bind him if they left it incomplete and unperformed, which they have not done” . What I interpreted from this case is once the offeree has entered to performance, no matter whether it is completed, this amount to acceptance and hence offer cannot be