Contract formation and the fog of rectification

Speaker: The Rt. Hon. Sir Terence Etherton, The Chancellor of the High Court
Chair: Professor Charles Mitchell, UCL
Series: UCL Private Law Group

About the talk  

The lecture addresses current controversy both in the recent case law and in scholarly writings about the proper test and rationale for rectification of contracts.  It examines the relationship between rectification and contract formation and interpretation, the role of equity in its relationship to the common law, policy issues about objective conduct and subjective intention and belief in the law of contract, and the proper relationship between rectification for common mistake and for unilateral mistake.

About the speaker

Sir Terence Etherton’s career spans the judiciary, legal practice, social and legal policy development, law reform, and legal scholarship. He is currently The Chancellor of the High Court. In 2008 he was appointed to the Court of Appeal for England and Wales after being an extremely successful and well regarded Chairman of the Law Commission. His career as a barrister was primarily at the Chancery Bar and he has continued to work in this aspect of law in his judicial career. In the two years he has been in the Court of Appeal he has written the lead or second judgments across a wide spectrum of legal matters ranging from judicial review to insolvency, from constructive trusts to appeals relating to dangerous animals. His judicial activities engage both domestic law and the law of the EU. He is also developing his scholarly career with publications in peer reviewed journals and has given many keynote lectures.