Capacity to contract assignment

Running head: CAPACITY TO CONTRACT
Capacity to Contract
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CAPACITY TO CONTRACT
Capacity to contract is defined as the ability to enter into a contract. The law says that
anyone entering into a contract should have the capacity to enter into the contract otherwise the
contract will be termed voidable1. A voidable contract is one which, though valid and
enforceable deems the contract invalid at his discretion. Under a voidable contract, one party has
the right to avoid the terms of the contract and exercises that right to ignore the terms of the
contract. For a contract to be deemed enforceable, the parties entering into the contract need to
be adults. Under the United Kingdom Law, minors and people with mental disability are barred
from entering into an enforceable contract. The contract law is there to ensure that the parties
entering into the contract get justice in cases of breach of contract. Minors and people with
mental disability do not have the right under Contract Law to enter into any contract and get the
benefits of the contract law. In cases when the parties do not have the capacity to enter into the
contract, the contract will turn voidable. The intention of the contract law in United Kingdom is
to make sure the needs and requirements of the individuals are met2.
Minors and mental capacity to contract
To be called a minor, the individual has to be above the above of 18 years. A minor has
the right to enter into a contract but the contract is considered voidable by the minor till he
attains the age of 18. This gives the minor the right to enter into the contract and also terminate
the contract at his own free will. The UK law also takes into consideration the needs of the
minors to enter into contract. The needs can be education driven or the need to buy necessary
substances like food, medicine or clothing. An example of a contract entered into by a minor to
necessitate need is apprenticeship. These are considered enforceable against the minor.
1 McKendrick, Ewan. Contract law: text, cases, and materials. Oxford University Press (UK), 2014.
2 Poole, Jill. Textbook on contract law. Oxford University Press, 2016.