law of contract?

Question

Difference between Void contract, unforceable contract and illigal contract.
All void contracts are unforceable but not all unforceable contract are void why?
All illigal contracts are void but not all void contracts are illigal why?

Answer 1

An illegal contract is a contract requiring that one of the parties do something illegal. All of those contracts are void because we don't want people doing anything illegal. The court will not enforce them because it would be wrong for a body of justice to require someone to do something illegal, something that the same body of justice would then condemn. Regardless of whether you contracted for it, you do not have to do it.

Contracts can be unenforceable for any number of reasons... they can be for performing an illegal act, they can be unconsionable (meaning it's wrong that the party forced the other to do that thing... one of our unconscionable contracts was a case where these door to door people came and told these people to buy all these appliances because they'd basically be free because they'd get money for each sale they made in the neighborhood, and all of the negotiations were in spanish, but they made them sign an english contract which said something completely different), it could be duress (if you signed because someone held a gun to your head, it's unenforceable), it could fail to comply with required standards (if it doesn't say enough in the contract like what the parties are contracting for, then it's unenforceable... of if it doesn't comply with the statute of frauds which requires that some contracts be in writing and signed by the party against whom enforcement is being sought), and things like that.

I'm pretty sure void contracts were valid contracts that they decided to erase... like they contracted and decided not to. You know how if you have a check that you fill out, but you do it wrong and have to do it over, so you write void across it, then write a new one.

so unenforceable is a very big category which contains both void and illegal contracts.

Answer 2

Void Contract: A contract that is of no legal effect, so that there is really no contract in existence at all. • A contract may be void because it is technically defective, contrary to public policy, or illegal.

Unenforceable contract: A valid contract that, because of some technical defect, cannot be fully enforced; a contract that has some legal consequences but that may not be enforced in an action for damages or specific performance in the face of certain defenses, such as the statute of frauds.

Illegal contract. A promise that is prohibited because the performance, formation, or object of the agreement is against the law. • Technically speaking, an illegal contract is not a contract at all, so the phrase is a misnomer.

A void contract leaves nothing, while and uneforceable contract is still a contract. Strickly speaking a Void Contract is not the same as an unenforceable contract (void is not a subset of unenforceable).

Illegality is one reason why contracts can be void, so illegal contracts are a subset of void contracts.

But you need to be carefull because the terms are sometimes used interchangable. For example, the restatements say that void contracts may still leave an obilgation that might be enforcable.

Answer 3

There is a major difference between the three:

Unenforceable means that there is some legal defense to the enforcement of the contract.

Void means the contract does not meet the criteria for being a contract (1. consist of an agreement between two parties, 2. be supported by legally sufficient consideration, 3. be made by parties with contractual capacity, 4. be about a legal object).

Illegal contracts are those made under duress or fraudulently.

All illegal contracts are void as they are either not about a legal object, do not have sufficient consideration, not made by parties with contractual capacity or not a willing agreement between two parties. On the other hand, not all void contracts are made under duress or for fraudulent gain.

All void contracts are unenforceable because they do not meet the legal criteria for being a contract. On the other hand, an unenforceable contract may meet the legal criteria of a contract, but there may be other legal issues surrounding the enforcement of the contract.

Answer 4

Unforceable Contract

Answer 5

Get thee to a copy of Black's law dictionary. And that's unENforceable contracts, preppie.

A contract may be unenforceable or void for any number of reasons, i.e., supply of mumblefrots suddenly becomes unavailable, the price of a certain commodity rises thereby affecting price of the stuff that is the subject of the contract, or contract may say, "If X happens, contract is void."

An illegal contract, on the other hand, is one that contains a term contrary to public law, i.e. an illegally high rate of interest. That's a fairly common one.

Answer 6

Some say that contact is the source of all law. A contract includes provisions agreed to by the parties and implied provisions based on custom law for that kind of contract.

Answer 7

If you'd pay attention in class and read your text book, you could answer this question on your own...