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contract
contract in law, a promise, enforceable by law, to perform or to refrain from performing some specified act. In a general sense, all civil obligations fall under tort or contract law. Torts are usually characterized as violations of duties that are imposed on all persons and that have been established entirely by law. In contracts, on the other hand, the parties determine, at least in part, what their obligations to one another will be. Special types of contracts are given separate articles, e.g., negotiable instrument , insurance , and deed .
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"contract." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "contract." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-contract.html "contract." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-contract.html |
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Contract
Contract The Supreme Court has had little impact on contract law, a fact largely attributable to structures and attitudes within the federal system that seek to preserve the states as separate law‐making authorities (see Federalism). The Court has played a more significant role in other areas of commercial law, such as admiralty and bankruptcy, for which there are constitutional provisions assigning responsibility to the national government. There is no comparable provision for contracts. Thus, with few exceptions, contract law has been viewed as within the purview of the states.
Some parts of the Constitution do, however, relate tangentially to contract law. Here the Court has had a significant impact, but one that affects the structures of government rather than the substance of contract law. For example, because the Constitution and national laws are supreme (Art. VI, sec. 2), the Court is the final arbiter of disputes originating in procurement contracts to which the federal government is a party. The other two relevant provisions of the Constitution are the Contracts Clause (Art. I, sec. 10, cl. 1) and the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court early applied the Contracts Clause, which prohibits states from interfering with the obligation of contracts, in Fletcher v. Peck (1810) and Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819). In both cases the Court declared state laws unconstitutional as interferences with the obligation of contracts. In the process, the Court gave such a broad definition to “contract” that for most of the nation's history private individuals have had great freedom to form their own contracts. Only under the pressures of the Great Depression did the Court retreat and allow states to modify contracts, and then only to declare a temporary moratorium on making mortgage payments in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell (1934). In Lochner v. New York (1905) and Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923), the Court also excepted important areas from state intervention when it used the Due Process Clauses to protect “freedom of contract” in striking down regulations of conditions of employment such as wages and hours (see Contract, Freedom of). But beyond ensuring a wide range for individual action in shaping contractual relations, the Court again had little to do with the doctrine of contract law. The only significant exceptions to the Court's general inefficacy with respect to contract law occurred during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Court's influence on commercial law in general peaked in the half‐century following Swift v. Tyson (1842), a decision that held that federal courts could decide questions of commercial law in accord with general principles, without being restricted to the decisions of the state in which the case arose. Thus, for half a century or so, the Court's search for a uniform federal common law coincided with similar interests in uniformity that originated in the growing commercial economy. In the end, however, the Court proved unable to satisfy the calls for a uniform national law. Even at the peak of its influence on contract law, the Court tended to hear major issues only occasionally—for the simple reason that the Supreme Court is a court of limited jurisdiction. State courts, by contrast, are courts of general jurisdiction, which can hear and decide any issue (see Judicial Power and Jurisdiction). By the end of the nineteenth century, therefore, a number of organizations began to look elsewhere for uniformity. In light of the contemporaneous view that Congress's powers over commerce were limited, the only path to uniformity was for each state legislature to adopt the same act. Moreover, the Court itself backed away from a federal common law when it reversed Swift in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins (1938). In the years since Erie the Court has regularly declined to hear contract cases, thereby continuing its minimal impact on the substantive law. Walter F. Pratt, Jr. |
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KERMIT L. HALL. "Contract." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. KERMIT L. HALL. "Contract." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O184-Contract.html KERMIT L. HALL. "Contract." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O184-Contract.html |
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contract
con·tract • n. / ˈkänˌtrakt/ a written or spoken agreement, esp. one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law. ∎ the branch of law concerned with the making and observation of such agreements. ∎ inf. an arrangement for someone to be killed by a hired assassin: smuggling bosses routinely put out contracts on witnesses. ∎ Bridge the declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump. ∎ dated a formal agreement to marry. • v. 1. / kənˈtrakt/ [intr.] decrease in size, number, or range. ∎ (of a muscle) become shorter or tighter in order to effect movement of part of the body: the heart is a muscle that contracts about seventy times a minute | [tr.] then contract your lower abdominal muscles. ∎ [tr.] shorten (a word or phrase) by combination or elision. 2. / ˈkänˌtrakt; kənˈtrakt/ [intr.] enter into a formal and legally binding agreement: the local authority will contract with a wide range of agencies to provide services. ∎ secure specified rights or undertake specified obligations in a formal and legally binding agreement: the paper had contracted to publish extracts from the diaries. ∎ impose an obligation on (someone) to do something by means of a formal agreement. ∎ [tr.] (contract something out) arrange for work to be done by another organization. ∎ [tr.] dated formally enter into (a marriage). ∎ [tr.] enter into (a friendship or other relationship). 3. / kənˈtrakt/ [tr.] catch or develop (a disease or infectious agent). 4. / kənˈtrakt/ [tr.] become liable to pay (a debt). DERIVATIVES: con·tract·ee / ˌkänˌtrakˈtē/ n. con·trac·tive / kənˈtraktiv; ˈkänˌtraktiv/ adj. |
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Cite this article
"contract." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "contract." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-contract.html "contract." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-contract.html |
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contract
contract 2
A. agree upon, make a contract; B. incur, be involved in; C. reduce in compass or in limits. XVI. Based partly on earlier contract pp. (now used only of contracted grammatical forms) — OF. — L. contractus, pp. of contrahere, f. CON- + trahere draw. So contraction XIV. contractor †contracting party XVI; undertaker of a work XVIII. — late L.; see -OR 1. |
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-contract1.html T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-contract1.html |
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contract
contract In law, an agreement between parties that can be legally enforced. A contract creates rights and obligations which can be enforced by law.
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"contract." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "contract." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-contract.html "contract." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-contract.html |
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contract
contract 1 sb. XIV. — OF. (mod. contrat) — L. contractus, f. pp. stem of contrahere; see next.
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-contract.html T. F. HOAD. "contract." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-contract.html |
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contract
contract
•abreact, abstract, act, attract, bract, compact, contract, counteract, diffract, enact, exact, extract, fact, humpbacked, hunchbacked, impact, interact, matter-of-fact, pact, protract, redact, refract, retroact, subcontract, subtract, tact, tract, transact, unbacked, underact, untracked
•play-act • autodidact
•artefact (US artifact) • cataract
•contact
•marked, unremarked
•Wehrmacht
•affect, bisect, bull-necked, collect, confect, connect, correct, defect, deflect, deject, detect, direct, effect, eject, elect, erect, expect, infect, inflect, inject, inspect, interconnect, interject, intersect, misdirect, neglect, object, perfect, project, prospect, protect, reflect, reject, respect, resurrect, sect, select, subject, suspect, transect, unchecked, Utrecht
•prefect • abject • retroject • intellect
•genuflect • idiolect • dialect • aspect
•circumspect • retrospect • Dordrecht
•vivisect • architect • unbaked
•sun-baked
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Cite this article
"contract." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "contract." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-contract.html "contract." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-contract.html |
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