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55 L. Q. Rev. 499 (1939)
Some Aspects of Offer and Acceptance

handle is hein.journals/lqr55 and id is 537 raw text is: SOME ASPECTS OF OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE.* A FEW years ago a friendly critic took me to task for not 1 making my definition of liability in tort as simple and as intelligible to the layman as is the definition of contract. My reply then was to question the complete simplicity of the definition of contract I and a more recent examination of the topic has strengthened my doubts. Not but what the definition of contract is, on any showing, an easier affair than is that of tort, for the latter is entangled with other parts of the system and the boundaries of it are As difficult to fix as those of a European country if the principle of division is nationality and if people of different races live in it cheek by jowl. But there are, even in contract, some inconsistencies in definition owing to the use of common words like 'agreement', 'promise', 'obligation', in a semi-technical sense, and then there are some problems in the application of the terms 'offer', 'acceptance' and ' revocation '. As the title indicates, the main theme of this paper is the presentation of a few of the problems that have occurred to us in connexion with offer and acceptance. It does not pretend to be an inspection of the whole foundation of contract, but it is necessary to devote a preliminary word or two to the ingredients of contract. The best definition of contract seems to be that adopted by Sir Frederick Pollock,-' A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce '.' Our reasons for preferring this will be prefaced best by an examination of two terms, 'agree- ment' and 'intention of the parties'. All the leading Anglo-American writers regard agreement * This article originated as a paper read to the Cambridge Law Club, December 2, 1938. It has been considerably enlarged as the result of discussion with several learned friends. In particular, Dr. Lipstein has been of the igreatest assistance in supplying the author with references to Continental law in general; Sir Maurice Amos has given many references to French law, and Professor H. Kantorowicz a valuable one to German law. Mr. Ashton-Cross has broadened the references to Scots law, and Dr. B. M. Jackson and Mr. Fraser Roberts have also given useful hints. , Winfield, Text-Book of Tort (1937) 14, note (k). ' We have had occasion to consult some of the Anglo-American periodical literature on the law of contract. There is an admirable bibliography of this literature in Williston, Contracts (revised ed. 1986-1938) vol. viii, pp. 7261- 7283. To it may be added the later articles of Professor K. N. Llewellyn in 47 Yale Law Journal, 1243, and 48 Yale Law Journal, 1, 779. 1 Contract (10th ed. 1936) 1.

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