Lecture Notes: General Contract Definition

Course : Contract Law Lecture : Erwin Credit Hours : 3 Credits Semester Sessions : 3 Semester, 2021/2022 Session Prepared By : Pegyy Dania LECTURE NOTES General Contract Definition The term contract in Indonesia which comes from the Dutch term as the original source, namely verbintenis and overeenkomst, is still being debated because each Indonesian civil law expert it has its own arguments and different expertise. Definition of Contract There are several definitions of the contract put forward by para expert, namely: 1. According to Lawrence M. Friedman a contract is a set of laws that only regulate certain aspects of the market and regulate certain types of agreements; 2. According to Michael D. Bayles a contract is a rule of law relating to the implementation of agreements or agreements; 3. According to Van Dunne, a contract is a legal relationship between two (2) or more parties based on an agreement kat to create law; And 4. According to Article 1313 of the Indonesian Civil Code, the agreement is an act by which one or more people bind himself to one or more other persons. In the Black's Law dictionary a contract is defined as a an agreement between two or more people that creates an obligation to do or not do a particular thing. "Contracts: An agreement between two or more persons which creates an obligation to do or not to do a peculiar thing. Its essentials are competent parties, subject matter, a legal consideration, mutuality of agreement, and mutuality of obligations.” Another definition of a contract according to Charles L Knapp and Nathan M. Crystal is: "A contract is an agreement between two or more persons not merely a shared belief, but a common understanding as to something that is to be done in the future by one or both of them”. This means that the contract is an agreement between two person or more, not only give confidence but in a way together mutual understanding to do something at the time future by one or both of them. Contract law is well known starting from Hammurabi's code up to Roman law, the legal system in countries that Continental European legal traditions apply, including Dutch and The reason is that Indonesia also has a basis based on law Rome, including the Civil Code which was in However, there are many articles that regulate contracts. In international world there are no laws like the Book of Laws Civil Law Law that regulates agreements or contracts, but there are conventions such as the Vienna Convention 1969, The Hague Convention, and so on. In contrast to international contracts which are dynamic, its development cannot be separated from the development of mankind with its trading activities which are broadly characterized by four forms of contract development, namely as follows: 1. International Contract Law embodied in Lex Mercatoria. The Lex Mercatoria or the laws of the merchants are the rules legal rules made by the merchants and for traders. Legal institutions that grow because of the need for traders to express the agreements that have been reached between them. 2. International Contract Law in National Law With the rules made by themselves the merchants for their interests, the government that felt the need to regulate this in the 19th century countries began to compile contract law in their national legal system and promulgated it in a code of laws. In Indonesia, as is known loaded in book II of BW which was adopted from the Netherlands. 3. International contract law in the form of contracts raw After the end of World War II, the traders who own a trading business that forms an organization traders. This trading organization aims to facilitate and expedite their trading business, one of them by introducing standard contract forms or standard. In its development the standard contract gets the pros and cons regarding its use, on the one hand it is seen as deviating from the principle of freedom of contract because generally it has been made unilaterally by one of the first. On the reverse side of the contract form This is considered useful because it shortens the time spent required for the closing formalities of negotiating trade deals. 4. Law of International Contracts and International Agreements At this stage international treaties were born formed by the state or institutions, in including the harmonization rules of various laws