The Bilaterality of Contract

Sakharova, Irina

Abstract

It is hardly in dispute that contracts are bilateral not infrequently, they are regarded as uniquely bilateral—bilateral in a way that distinguishes them from other voluntary obligations in private law (as well as in morality); what is, however, debatable is what contractual bilaterality means. The chapter clarifies two senses of ‘bilateral’ (bilateral as ‘mutually agreed’ and bilateral as ‘mutually obliging’) and identifies two sources of confusion in understanding contractual bilaterality. The first is that the two senses of ‘bilateral’ are not always distinguished, properly or at all, in the debates on the nature of contracts. Moreover, it is the first sense of ‘bilateral’ that is sometimes implied or even explicitly articulated when the nature of contractual obligations is discussed in connection with trying to either distinguish them from or assimilate them into other voluntary obligations, while it is the second sense of ‘bilateral’ that is a better candidate for differentiating those obligations that attract contractual enforceability from those that do not. The second source of confusion is that even when the focus is on the second sense of ‘bilateral’, contractual bilaterality is normally reduced to the reciprocity of the parties’ duties to perform, while this is only a part of what it means for contracts to be bilateral. The chapter outlines a richer account of contractual bilaterality.

Citation

Sakharova, I. (2025). The Bilaterality of Contract. In M. Chen-Wishart, & P. Saprai (Eds.), Research Handbook on the Philosophy of Contract Law (178-191). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800885417.00020

• Online Publication Date: Apr 22, 2025
• Publication Date: Apr 22, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2025
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 178-191
• Book Title: Research Handbook on the Philosophy of Contract Law
• Chapter Number: 13
• ISBN: 9781800885400
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800885417.00020
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3490673
• Publisher URL: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-the-philosophy-of-contract-law-9781800885400.html
• Contract Date: Sep 14, 2023