Reflections on Intention in the Law of Contract
Brian Coote |
The common law purports to treat contracts as expressions of intention, which in turn has implications for their formation, interpretation, and construction, and in some circumstances their termination. In practice, however, because of its emphasis on objective intention and its recourse to certain types of implied term, the law seems to pay relatively little regard to what individual contracting parties actually intend. The view taken in this article is that, rather than being a matter for criticism, this disjunction is simply a rational and necessary response to practical constraints, by which a balance of convenience has been struck. On the other hand, the extent of the disjunction ought not to be exaggerated. What the law chooses to treat as intention may in many cases come closer to the real intentions of the parties than some might suppose.
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Police Negligence in Domestic Violence Cases and the Canadian Case of Mooney: What Should Have Happened, and Could It Happen in New Zealand?
Julia Tolmie |
This article canvasses the legal issues faced by women who sue for negligent failure by the police to act on complaints of domestic violence or the breach of a protection order. Accordingly, it examines whether the police could owe a duty of care to a woman who is the target of domestic violence, and, if so, whether their breach of that duty could be held to have caused her harm if the perpetrator subsequently injures her. Finally, the article briefly spotlights the obstacles to such litigation in New Zealand because of the Accident Compensation Scheme. |
2006 Issues 
