Contract
A contract is an agreement or promise that the law can enforce. The law will enforce some agreements but not others. For example, in most places, if a parent promises to take a child to get ice cream, the law will not enforce that promise as a legal contract.
The legal rules about which promises are enforced by the law can be different in different places (or jurisdictions), but a contract is usually enforced only if it is made by people or groups who want it to be enforced and who know what they are doing.
Sometimes, a contract is written down and signed by the people agreeing to it, but it does not always need to be. People usually sign a contract when something important or costly is being done. For example, when people take a job, they will sometimes sign a contract with their employers. The contract will show what the person must do as part of his job, how much they will be paid, and so on. The person and the employer will sign the contract, and it will become a legal promise.
If someone breaks a contract, another person might sue him or her. In a lawsuit about a contract, the court will look at the contract, listen to what the people who made the contract say about it, and then make a decision about what the contract means.
Contract Media
A Sumerian contract for the sale of a field and house in around 2600 BCE. As sedentary civilisations began to develop during the Bronze Age, contracts emerged as a necessary part of daily economic life.
A hundi for Rs 2500 of 1951, stamped in the Bombay Province with a pre-printed revenue stamp. Hundis represent one of the earliest iterations of modern negotiable contracts.
The Carbolic Smoke Ball offer
Hugo Grotius, one of the jurists credited with the development of Roman Dutch law
James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, an early jurist credited with developing Scots law on the basis of " the civil, canon and feudal laws; and with the customs of neighbouring nations"
Endowment Charter (Waqfiyya) of Hürrem Sultan, a contract establishing a valid waqf
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, c. 2600 BC
A contract from the Tang dynasty that records the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins
German marriage contract, 1521 between Gottfried Werner von Zimmern and Apollonia von Henneberg-Römhild
Thomas Boylston to Thomas Jefferson, May 1786, Maritime Insurance Premiums
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