WJEC A-Level Law 603-1978-1
Law Making in Wales and the UK
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent
The Civil Courts and Dispute Resolution
The Criminal Process and the Criminal Courts
Legal Personnel and the Judiciary
Access to Justice and Funding
Tort: Rules and Theory
Tort: Negligence
Tort: Occupiers' Liability
Tort: Remedies
Human Rights: Rules and TheoryHuman rights
Human Rights: Key Convention ProvisionsHuman rights
Human Rights: RestrictionsHuman rights
Human Rights: EnforcementHuman rights
Human Rights: Protection and ReformHuman rights
Contract: Rules and TheoryContract
Contract: FormationContract
Contract: TermsContract
Contract: Misrepresentation and DuressContract
Contract: DischargeContract
Contract: RemediesContract
Criminal Law: Rules and TheoryCriminal
Criminal Law: General Elements of LiabilityCriminal
Criminal Law: Offences Against the PersonCriminal
Criminal Law: Property OffencesCriminal
Criminal Law: DefencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Preliminary OffencesCriminal
Contract: Misrepresentation and Duress
Evaluating misrepresentation and duress
- 3 things to know
- A2 Units 3 and 4
Overview
Recall questions on the rule that silence is not a misrepresentation, the fact and opinion distinction, the deceit measure for careless statements, the narrowness of economic duress, and unconscionability.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
State the main criticism of the rule that silence cannot be a misrepresentation.
Assess the criticism that the distinction between fact and opinion is unworkable.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
State the main criticism of the rule that silence cannot be a misrepresentation.
Model answer
A party may stay silent knowing the other is contracting under a serious mistake about something only they can discover, which rewards concealment and sits badly with the idea that contracts should be honestly made.
- 2
State the case for keeping the rule that there is no general duty of disclosure.
Model answer
A duty to volunteer information would be impossible to define, would destroy the value of a party's own research and investment in knowledge, and would make every negotiation the subject of later argument about what should have been said.
- 3
Assess the criticism that the distinction between fact and opinion is unworkable.
Model answer
The line is hard to draw because most opinions carry implied assertions about the facts behind them, but the cases show a consistent approach based on who was in a position to know the truth, which gives the distinction practical content.
- 4
Explain the objection to using the deceit measure of damages for a merely careless statement.
Model answer
Removing the remoteness limit is justified as a penalty for dishonesty, so applying it to a party who was careless but honest imposes a punishment out of proportion to the fault and blurs an important moral distinction.
- 5
State the case in favour of the approach taken in Royscot Trust v Rogerson (1991).
Model answer
The subsection expressly makes the maker liable as though the statement had been made fraudulently, so the court gave effect to the words Parliament used, and the wide measure discourages careless statements made to secure a contract.
- 6
Criticise the number of separate routes to a remedy for a false pre-contractual statement.
Model answer
A claimant may sue in deceit, in negligence at common law, under section 2(1) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967, or for breach of a term, and the overlapping tests and different measures of damages make the law needlessly complex and expensive to litigate.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
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Every question in Contract: Misrepresentation and Duress, on a schedule.
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