The aim of this book is to provide a compre hens ive but read able account of what we have termed ‘the modern law of contract’. By this we mean the law of contract as applied by the English courts in the early twentyfirst century. This we see as being still rooted in the forms of the clas sical theory of contract (which is gener ally accep ted as dating from the late nineteenth century), but with those forms increas ingly being stretched to adapt to the modern world. The inad equa cies of the clas sical model that are thus exposed have been the subject of much comment ary and analysis, together with sugges tions of better models which might be adopted. Understanding the modern law requires an aware ness of these crit ical analyses and this we have attemp ted to provide through out the text. What results is not, however, and is not inten ded to be, a radical rereading of this area of law. A quick look at the chapter head ings will show an overall struc ture that will be famil iar to all contract lectur ers. For the purposes of expos i tion, many famil iar author it ies have been used. Throughout, however, and in partic u lar through the foot notes, we have tried to indic ate ways in which the clas sical model of contract may be or is being chal lenged and developed, whether openly or surrepti tiously. We hope that the result is a treat ment of the law which is easy to follow (to the extent possible given the complex ity of some areas) but which is also suffi ciently rich to provide a chal lenge to more discern ing readers. At the very least we hope that such readers will be encour aged to think about and explore new lines of thought on a variety of topics. The previ ous editions have been well received by students and lectur ers, and there are no major changes to the struc ture of this edition. The ‘In Focus’ sections have been retained. These do not for the most part contain new mater ial, but are designed to highlight some of the more discurs ive sections in each chapter, and to separ ate these more clearly from the straight for ward expos i tion of the law. Diagrammatic summar ies continue to appear at various points in every chapter to provide assist ance to students who find visual repres ent a tions easier to digest than plain text. ‘Key Cases’ are high lighted. These are inten ded to be the cases that ‘all students of contract law should know’ on each topic. This is inev it ably to some extent a personal selec tion, and no doubt other teach ers will object that their favour ite examples have been excluded. Many of the ‘For Thought’ questions that appear in each chapter have been revised to take the form of short hypothetical problems, giving them a more practical focus. They are still inten ded to stimu late students into think ing about issues for them selves, and devel op ing a crit ical approach to the law – not simply accept ing what judges and comment at ors say as the only possible answer to any partic u lar ques tion. For this reason no answers are provided to these questions.