Contract Formation, Consideration, Intention and Privity
Offer, invitation to treat, acceptance, unilateral contracts, communication rules, consideration, intention to create legal relations and privity.
How to study for A-level Law
Learn each rule with its authority, practise identifying issues in factual scenarios, and develop balanced evaluation that reaches a supported legal conclusion.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Agreement requires a legally effective offer and matching acceptance, distinguished from negotiations and invitations to treat.
Exam cue: Construct the chronology of communications before deciding whether and when agreement arose.
Concept 2
Consideration must be legally sufficient and connected to the bargain, while intention distinguishes legally binding arrangements from non-legal understandings.
Exam cue: Identify the promise and the requested return before evaluating consideration.
Concept 3
Privity generally limits enforcement to parties, subject to recognised statutory and common-law routes affecting third parties.
Exam cue: Keep formation, enforceability and third-party rights as separate questions.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Treating every advertisement or price display as an offer.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Assuming consideration must be economically adequate or that past conduct always counts.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Using intention to create legal relations as a vague test of whether an agreement feels serious.
Guardrail: Do not jump from a factual outcome to liability: prove every legal element and keep board-specific coverage separate from the multi-board core.
Memory anchors
Offer
A sufficiently certain promise showing willingness to be bound on acceptance.
Acceptance
Final and unqualified assent communicated by an effective method.
Consideration
The legally sufficient value exchanged for a promise.
Intention
The parties must objectively intend their arrangement to have legal effect.
Privity
Contractual rights and duties generally belong to the parties, subject to exceptions.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A shop displays a camera with a price label. A customer says, “I accept.” What is the orthodox classification of the display?
An advertisement promises £1,000 to anyone who uses a product as directed and still becomes ill, and states that money is deposited to show sincerity. What may it be?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
What is Pass Harbor?
Completely free exam prep for 247 UK exams.
- Practice questions
- Flashcards
- Study guides
- Mock exams
- No registration
- No paywall
- Start instantly
“No more expensive exam prep. Quality study tools should be accessible to everyone.”