Vanishing Contract Law Common Law in the Age of Contracts Law in Context Series

English contract law provides the invisible framework that underpins and enables much contracting activity in society, yet the role of the law in policing many of our contracts now approaches vanishing point. The methods by which contracts come into existence, and notionally create binding obligations, have transformed over the past forty years. Consumers now enter into contracts through remote and automated processes on standard terms over which they have little control. This book explores the substantive weakening of 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.

1. Vanishing contract law; 2. Contract common law trends; 3. Contractualisation and the common law retreat; 4. Private ordering, regulation and contract law; 5. Contracts through the gaps; 6. Future challenges for contract law; 7. The possibility of common law revival; 8. Conclusion.

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 by the Law Commissions of England and Scotland.