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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Infants' Contracts
T2 - Law and Policy in the 18th and 19th Centuries
AU - Austen-Baker, Richard
AU - Hunter, Kate
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Under English law, prior to 1970 young people up to the age of 21 lacked the capacity to make binding contracts, subject to certain exceptions. The report of the Latey Committee on the Age of Majority, which had recommended a reduction to age 18, was one-sided and, so far as capacity to make contracts was concerned, offered scant evidence as to the motivations of the existing law. The Committee heard evidence from the Church asserting, with no evidence, that such rules were intended to control young people and were there to protect the interests of others. This article argues, especially from analysis of the relevant case law during the 18th and 19th centuries - the principle period of development of English jurisprudence on minors' contracts - that the law's motivation had in reality been to protect infants from themselves and from adults who sought to prey on their naivety and impulsiveness.
AB - Under English law, prior to 1970 young people up to the age of 21 lacked the capacity to make binding contracts, subject to certain exceptions. The report of the Latey Committee on the Age of Majority, which had recommended a reduction to age 18, was one-sided and, so far as capacity to make contracts was concerned, offered scant evidence as to the motivations of the existing law. The Committee heard evidence from the Church asserting, with no evidence, that such rules were intended to control young people and were there to protect the interests of others. This article argues, especially from analysis of the relevant case law during the 18th and 19th centuries - the principle period of development of English jurisprudence on minors' contracts - that the law's motivation had in reality been to protect infants from themselves and from adults who sought to prey on their naivety and impulsiveness.
KW - law
KW - legal history
KW - contracts
KW - infants
KW - minors
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 1
EP - 24
JO - Journal of Contract Law
JF - Journal of Contract Law
SN - 1030-7230
IS - 4
ER -