Landmark Cases in the Law of Contract offers twelve original essays by leading contract scholars. As with the essays in the companion volume, Landmark Cases in the Law of Restitution (Hart, 2006) each essay takes as its focus a particular leading case, and analyses that case in its historical or theoretical context. The cases range from the early eighteenth- to the late twentieth-centuries, and deal with an array of contractual doctrines. Some of the essays call for their case to be stripped of its landmark status, whilst others argue that it has more to offer than we have previously appreciated. The particular historical context of these landmark cases, as revealed by the authors, often shows that our current assumptions about the case and what it stands for are either mistaken, or require radical modification. The book also explores several common themes which are fundamental to the development of the law of contract: for instance, the influence of commercial expectations, appeals to 'reason' and the significance of particular judicial ideologies and techniques.

1 Coggs v Barnard (1703) DAVID IBBETSON2 Pillans v Van Mierop (1765) GERARD MCMEEL3 Carter v Boehm (1766) STEPHEN WATTERSON4 Da Costa v Jones (1778) WARREN SWAIN5 Hochster v De La Tour (1853) PAUL MITCHELL6 Taylor v Caldwell (1863) CATHARINE MACMILLAN7 Smith v Hughes (1871) JOHN PHILLIPS8 Foakes v Beer (1884) MICHAEL LOBBAN9 Hongkong Fir Shipping Co v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, The Hongkong Fir (1961) DONAL NOLAN10 Suisse Atlantique Société d'Armament SA v NV Rotterdamsche Kolen Centrale (1966) ROGER BROWNSWORD11 Reardon Smith Lines Ltd v Yngvar Hansen-Tangen, The Diana Prosperity (1976) MICHAEL BRIDGE12 Johnson v Agnew (1979) CHARLES MITCHELL