SSLT 2025: Trust in Promise and Contract: One Sense or Two?

In the seminar “Trust in Promise and Contract: One Sense or Two?” held on 27th October 2025, Professor of Law Prince Saprai of University College London defended Charles Fried’s claim in Contract as Promise that contracts, like promises, invoke trust. While much of the “contract and promise” debate focused on whether key contractual doctrines converge with or diverge from the rules governing promises outside the law, Fried’s aforementioned claim has received comparatively little attention, with the notable exception of Dori Kimel.

In From Promise to Contract, Kimel argues against Fried, contending that contract and promise involve fundamentally different kinds of trust: the former a thinner kind of trust that relies on the reassurance given between contractual parties, who are typically strangers, and the latter a thicker kind of trust grounded in pre-existing personal relationships. Expressing doubt about Kimel’s distinction, Saprai suggests that the sense of trust at play in promise and in contract is fundamentally the same.