contract law A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to t ...

, a ''simple contract'' is a contract made orally or in writing or both of them rather than a contract made under seal. Simple contracts require

consideration Consideration is a concept of English common law and is a necessity for simple contracts but not for special contracts (contracts by deed). The concept has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions. The court in '' Currie v Misa'' declar ...

to be valid, but simple contracts may be implied from the conduct of parties bound by the contract.

William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family ...

observed in his ''

Commentaries on the Laws of England The ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' are an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765–1770. The work is divided into four volum ...

'' that in the seventeenth century, debtors used simple contracts as one of three accepted forms of unsecured debt instruments. In 1828, the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

amended the statute of frauds so that oral acknowledgments or promises could not be used as evidence to prove the existence of a simple contract. Today, some American jurisdictions have established that a security interest is perfected "when a creditor on a simple contract cannot acquire a judicial lien that is superior to the interest" of the secured party.Timothy R. Zinnecker
''Purchase Money Security Interests in the Preference Zone: Questions Answered and Questions Raised by the 1994 Amendments to Bankruptcy Code § 547''
62 47, 84 (1997) (internal quotations omitted).

References

Common law Contract law {{US-law-stub

See also

References