Private regulation oeaefairs: obligations asswmeb by private agreements

Contracts" are those voluntary agreements between persons that a court will enforce. Some such agreements are written as mutual promises*. Almost all such agreements look to* a future date or time for performance*! of the mutual promises.

In one sense, "contracts" are legal obligations imposed* not by the government but by the persons entering the agreement. Contract law enforces a number of agreements almost as wide as the human imagination, especially in the field of commerce* (sale of goods and services). Contracts therefore represent the private and consensual, not governmental, ordering of life*.

Yet courts will not consider all promises and agreements to be "contracts" that laws will recognize and enforce. Courts use many concepts to define which agreements and promises are enforceable by courts as "contracts", but the two most traditional prerequisites* are these; (i) a requirement of an actual agreement or mutual exchange of promises*, and (ii) a requirement that the promises exchanged have value. The controlled growth of contract law has occurred as courts have sometimes insisted upon these principles, yet sometimes relaxed* them. Private parties order their affairs with agreement; courts set the outer boundary marking those agreements that will not be legally enforced as contracts. And, as we shall see, sometimes the law deems* interactions to be contracts even when the persons involved made no actual promises to each other.

Notes

mutual promises — взаимные обещания

look to — зд. предусматривать

time for performance — время выполнений

impose — накладывать

commerce — торговля

ordering of life — порядок жизни

prerequisites — предпосылки, условия

mutual exchange of promises — взаимный обмен обещаниями

relax — отпускать, ослаблять

deem — признавать, допускать