3. Offer and Acceptance

This chapter discusses the rules of offer and acceptance that have been laid down by the courts over the years. It states that the rules claim to be of general application and that they purport to give effect to the intention of the parties, albeit their intention objectively ascertained. The chapter also establishes that the rules in practice are often inter-linked. For example, the question whether or not an offer has been accepted may depend in a particular case on whether or not the offer was revoked before it was accepted; a court deciding such a case must decide when both the acceptance and the revocation took effect. The chapter examines the difference between an offer and an invitation to negotiate (or an invitation to treat), particularly in its application to contracts concluded in shops, tenders and contracts concluded at an auction, the battle of the forms, the time at which acceptance takes place when a contract is concluded by post, and acceptance in the case of unilateral contracts.