Adequacy and Sufficiency.

FERGAL7

Well lads,

I'm currently doing a contract law assignment on the adequacy and sufficiency of consideration in contract law. Unfortunately Academic commentary has proven incredibly difficult to come by.

what I'm looking for would be articles relating to:
1: Sufficiency.
2: Where adequacy of consideration is relevant.
3: Articles on the promise, reliance and bargain theory of how contracts are formed.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

conorh91

FERGAL7 wrote: »

I'm currently doing a contract law assignment on the adequacy and sufficiency of consideration in contract law. Unfortunately Academic commentary has proven incredibly difficult to come by.

The rules on adequacy are pretty straightforward, and can be summed up by saying that the courts do not concern themselves with adequacy of consideration, so perhaps that is why there is a lack of academic commentary, as you see it.

Turning to insufficiency, there are at least one well-known case that can be considered a classic (think gramophones and chocolate wrappers). If you are coming to the end of a semester in contract law, this is a case that should have been covered.

Before you look for journal articles, I would go through your contract textbook and lecture notes if I were you. Journal articles expand on your understanding of the fundamentals, and I suspect you are putting the cart before the horse here.

Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if there were very few journal articles on adequacy and sufficiency. There is not a whole lot to say. It can be summed up in about three sentences.

1. Adequacy doesn't matter at all: you can sell a gold mine for a fiver.
2. Sufficiency is relevant to consideration.
3. However, it is only relevant to the extent that consideration must have some objective legal value.

FERGAL7

Thank you for your reply.

I actually have thoroughly read and noted class notes and the textbook I'm just looking for commentary to bolster the overall assignment and push it up into that top grade bracket as the lecturer is BIG on academic commentary.

You would be correct in saying journal articles and the like on the topic are incredibly difficult to come by.

conorh91

That sounds like a pain in the ass alright. Since "sufficiency" and "adequacy" are such non-specific terms, maybe try putting the names of the leading cases like Chappell etc into the article search. Make sure to try the UK journals in particular, if your institution has access to Westlaw UK.

Remember academic commentary won't necessarily be articles. Do a supermarket sweep of your college library. if the class is using McDermott for example, consult Chitty, or any other decent contract text you can get your hands on.

234

FERGAL7 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.

I actually have thoroughly read and noted class notes and the textbook I'm just looking for commentary to bolster the overall assignment and push it up into that top grade bracket as the lecturer is BIG on academic commentary.

You would be correct in saying journal articles and the like on the topic are incredibly difficult to come by.

There's not a great deal of material on this area. You might look at Richard Posner's work on economic approaches to consideration which is relevant to adequacy and sufficiency the entirely artificial nature of those tests. If you are interested in that then Goetz and Scott have done some more advanced work in that area. Possibly a bit too much for a normal assignment though.