The Interpretation of Contracts in Australia 2nd ed

Australia Title

The Interpretation of Contracts in Australia Second Edition provides practitioners with essential guidance on the construction and interpretation of contracts, including in difficult matters of disputed interpretation.

The return of this widely acclaimed adaptation of the English title The Interpretation of Contracts has been much-anticipated. It is established as a leading work in its field.

Australian barrister David Hughes and Lord Justice Kim Lewison have thoroughly updated their revision of the English text to reflect Australian law since the previous edition published in 2011, while retaining the structure and principles of the first nine chapters of the English edition.

These principles of construction and interpretation are discussed in chapters which proceed through the key rules governing each of them, with extracts and summaries of decisions. The following matters are updated with new and more detailed analysis:

• The unitary and iterative process of interpretation.
• The use of recitals in the interpretation of a contract.
• Significant revision of the section on the implication of terms into a contract, following High Court decisions.
• The similarities and differences between interpretation and implication of terms.
• The extent to which a duty of good faith imports standards of objective reasonableness.
• The circumstances in which standard terms will be incorporated into contracts formed online.
• Deeper consideration of the use of background material to interpret a contract, including:
  • An update on whether a contract must be ambiguous before background material can be used to construe the contract.
  • Deeper analysis of the extent to which background material must be mutually known to the parties before it can be used to interpret the contract.
  • The extent to which background material can be used to interpret standard form contracts.
  • Deeper analysis of the extent to which knowledge of the legal background to a contract will be attributed to the parties.

The work’s insights will inform the process of drafting or revising a contract by identifying key principles and discussing them comprehensively, yet concisely, with reference to case law. By enabling lawyers to construct arguments rooted in the case law, it helps lawyers better challenge contracts and explain their inadequacies.

The Interpretation of Contracts in Australia Second Edition is an indispensable resource for practice in contract law.