A new edition of the textbook for Hong Kong contract law students.

This fourth edition of Contract Law in Hong Kong is the most comprehensive contemporary textbook on Hong Kong contract law written primarily for law students. The sixteen chapters of the book cover all basic contract concepts in a reader-friendly style and make ample use of case illustrations, including over 200 new cases since the third edition. The book deals with the core areas of contract law. The new legislative rules, such as the Contract Ordinance regarding the rights of third parties, have also been covered.

The first two chapters introduce the major themes and explain the multiple sources of law in Hong Kong. The subsequent thirteen chapters cover the formation of a valid contract, its contents, "vitiating" elements, the consequences of illegality, the termination of contracts, and remedies for breach of contract. The book concludes with an explanation of the doctrine of privity and the legislative reform of the operation of privity in Hong Kong. Particular attention is given to what makes Hong Kong law different from other common law jurisdictions, and to the continuing significance of English case law in Hong Kong.

“One of the most important contributions to the field of contract theory—if not the most important—in the past 25 years.” —Stephen A. Smith, McGill University

Can we account for contract law on a moral basis that is acceptable from the standpoint of liberal justice? To answer this question, Peter Benson develops a theory of contract that is completely independent of—and arguably superior to—long-dominant views, which take contract law to be justified on the basis of economics or promissory morality. Through a detailed analysis of contract principles and doctrines, Benson brings out the specific normative conception underpinning the whole of contract law. Contract, he argues, is best explained as a transfer of rights, which is complete at the moment of agreement and is governed by a definite conception of justice—justice in transactions.

Benson’s analysis provides what John Rawls called a public basis of justification, which is as essential to the liberal legitimacy of contract as to any other form of coercive law. The argument of Justice in Transactions is expressly complementary to Rawls’s, presenting an original justification designed specifically for transactions, as distinguished from the background institutions to which Rawls’s own theory applies. The result is a field-defining work offering a comprehensive theory of contract law. Benson shows that contract law is both justified in its own right and fully congruent with other domains—moral, economic, and political—of liberal society.