PLRG Public Seminar: Contracts as Expectation: Explaining the Futurity Aspect of Contractual Claims and the Nature of Simultaneous Transactions by Dr Irina Sakharova

Dr Irina Sakharova challenges what can collectively be referred to as exclusionary theses—similar, yet importantly different, theoretical claims that common transactions such as retail sales—the quotidien at-the-till or over-the-counter purchase of goods in a shop—should not (or, on some exclusionary theses, should not always or ‘by default’) be regarded as contractual, as they supposedly only give rise to general, and not special, rights and duties; more specifically, such exchanges do not involve an undertaking (or a ‘promise’) to perform in the future, which is thought to remove any aspect of futurity or expectation—an aspect that is normally regarded as essential for the contractual obligation.