Nutshells:Contract Law

Authors: Robert Duxbury

Price: £9.95

Edition: 8th Edition (March 2009)

ISBN: 978-1-847034960

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This eighth edition of the well-respected Nutshells Contract Law has a young and funky cover to match the equally funky transformation inside the covers.  Gone are the blocks of text and in its place has come colour: blue backgrounds and blue edged boxes together with a revision check-list and model question and answer. These improvements mean that a text once ahead of its competitors and most recently lagging behind, is back in the pack of front runners.

Written by an experienced lecturer, Robert Duxbury, Nutshells Contract Law is separated into fifteen chapters: introduction; offer and acceptance; intention to be legally bound; consideration; capacity and formalities; terms of a contract; exclusion clauses; misrepresentation; mistake; duress and undue influence; illegal and void contracts; privity of contract; discharge of contract; remedies; and handy hints and useful websites.  This provides an excellent structure for the study of the material because it logically leads the reader through a contract's lifetime.

Notoriously disliked by lecturers, Nutshells Contract Law is not intended to be the first port of call for students.  Instead, it is a valuable aide memorie and a fantastic starting point for experienced practitioners (who often need such a text to remind them of the basic principles before tackling more technical issues).  Its written style is also extremely clear: adopting a very straight-forward approach to the material and including just enough detail on the relevant cases and statutory provisions.  Readers looking for more subtle points will, of course, be left disappointed

Nutshells Contract Law has been dragged (possibly kicking and screaming) into the twenty-first century.  Its new layout and the use of colour means it is more readable than it once was.  The inclusion of sample questions and answers are also excellent: it really allows a reader to check they have understood the basic principles.  If it is used as the author intends, it will be a key text (at a very competitive price) for anyone studying or practising in the field of contract law.

Reviewed on 26 January 2010

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