How many contracts did you enter into today? The answer may surprise you. Though the prevalence of contracts in the world of commerce is taken as a given, the importance of contracts in everyday life is often overlooked. Almost everything individuals do - from buying a cup of coffee, to online shopping, to signing on to a phone plan - is regulated by the rules of contract law.
Despite this, coming to grips with contract law is no easy task. This is partly because the rules are not found in a single document. They are instead scattered across multiple sources. Many of the rules are found in judges decisions, some of which are centuries old. To understand, for example, the rules regulating the renegotiation of contracts, the starting point is an 1809 English decision about a ship’s crew who agreed to sail their vessel to its home port short-handed in exchange for extra pay.
Further rules are found in a miscellany of legislation. This means the answer to an apparently simple question often begins with an account of centuries-old English court decisions and ends with an explanation of modern legislation. It’s not surprising most laypeople feel ill-equipped to grapple with their own legal dilemmas.
Long History of Planned Reform
There have long been proposals to reform contract law to make it more accessible and modern. In 1992, the Law Reform Commission of Victoria published a proposal to sweep away the complex web of Australian contract law and replace it with a code which consisted of just 27 clauses. The proposed document was written in plain language, with broad principles which could be adapted to the huge variety of cases which come before the courts.
Though the 1992 proposal never gained momentum, the notion of a contracts code has had enduring appeal. In 2012, the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department released a discussion paper which canvassed the possibility of introducing a code of Australian contract law. People debated the benefits and costs of such a reform.
