Business Law Essay
Business Law Essay
Business Law Essay
This essay is discussing about how to terminate a contract in Australia and how
effective of the enforcement of the law to the real incidents by comparing with Indian
contract act.
In Australia, all contracts will eventually come to an end. However, the termination
might occur when the parties are discharge from the obligations that they agreed in
the contract. There are some ways will impact on the termination such as:
performance of the parties, agreement between parties, pursuant to the term in the
contract, frustration, operation of law, assignment of contractual obligations and
benefits, non-performance, the election to discharge or affirm, the election to
discharge the contract, the election to affirm the contract.
Firstly, performance of the parties within the contract is considered in 2 ways, which
are actual performance and attempted performance. In the actual performance, it
contains many factors that allow a contract to be terminated: Is the payment paid on
time as in the contract? Is there any act performed like what the promisor promised
to do? Depends on the situations, the compensation will be paid for the party who
performed better. Besides that, a failure in attempted performance is also one of
reasons causing a termination of a contract. The rejection of creditor may not erase
the debt but will release debtor from the duty of looking for the creditor to pay.
What if there is an agreement between the parties about terminating the contract, will
the contract be discharged? The answer is “What has been created by agreement
can be terminated by agreement”. However, the decision could be too hasty so the
law also gives the parties a chance for consideration. It means each party has to
prove sufficient consideration to end up with the decision. There is also possibilities
might happen when the parties want to release the contract which are substitution or
variation contract. The parties feel do not like to keep going with the original contract
so the contract is renew. Besides that, there is also ‘waiver’ situation when one of the
parties completed all obligations under the contract and feel like want to release
other party from contracted obligation. Contract is also terminated because of a term
in the contract.
Under Australian common law, a contract can be voided without agreement of the
parties because of a material alteration of written document. A merger of a simple
contract to a formal contract is also counted as a termination.
The contract could be destroyed by an act of God, which is natural or human force
beyond the control of the parties. Or we call this frustration. According to the
definition of frustration, when an unexpected event happens after the contract has
been formed that changes the way it can be performed. As in the case law Taylor v
Caldwell (1863),
Frustration
Definition of ‘frustration’
Examples of frustration
The effect of frustration (depends on states) <- see text book page 393
Non-performance
Discharge
Australian
Performance
In Australian contract law, when a contractor wants to stop the contract, there are
always a numbers of ways, most often through performance.
Agreement
Parties are free to terminate their contract by agreement. This might take the form of
a termination provision in the contract itself or through a new and separate contract.
Breach
Frustration
Indian contract act 1872 about termination is quite biased about the performance.
Wondering is there any termination law in an Indian contract or the court or the
parties’ base on the performance to judge.
Agreement
References:
http://netk.net.au/Contract/06Termination.asp
http://www.corecentre.co.in/Database/Docs/DocFiles/indian_contract.pdf
http://www.australiancontractlaw.com/law/termination.html
http://www.xomba.com/discharge_contract_indian_contract_act
http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/mode-of-discharge-of-contract-under-
indian-contract-act-3367836.html