在英语词汇学习过程中，想要更好地记忆这些英语词汇，就要先弄明白词汇的真正含义，有什么用处，与相近词汇有哪些区别。下面是对于商务英语词汇中，contracts合同这个词汇的介绍，分享给大家作为参考。

　　contracts is the body of law that by and large concerns voluntary agreements. most people understand more or less what it means to enter into a contract. they realize that a contract is a bargain or agreement between two people (or more) to do some work, to buy or sell goods, to put up a building or tear one down, or to perform any one of countless other activities, which one person or company promises to do in exchange for a counterpromise (usually a promise to pay money).

　　over a century ago(1861), the great english jurist, sir henry maine1, published a book called "ancient law". in a famous passage, maine described the evolution of law over the centuries in "progressive" (that is, modernizing) societies. the development went "from status to contract." what he meant was that legal relations in modern societies do not depend primarily on birth or caste; they depend on voluntary agreements. elizabeth ii is queen of england because of an accident of birth; but it is not an accident of birth that i make payments on a used yellow plymouth; it is because i agreed to buy the car, on my own, as an adult, quite willingly.

　　in this sense, a regime of contract is fundamental to modern society. the whole economy —— more, the whole social system —— rests on it. but a regime of contract, a system of contract —— that is, an economy organized around voluntary agreements, governed mainly by the market- is not the same as the law of contracts as conventionally di

　　ned and taught in law schools. the law of contracts deals with only certain aspects of the market, and with certain kinds of agreement.

　　in legal terms, a contract is a promise (or set of promises) that the law protects and enforces. if i promise to deliver a carload of lumber and the buyer promises to pay me a certain price, and i do not deliver the lumber, i have "breached" my contract. the buyer can sue me for damages —— if he chooses.

　　to make a valid contract, generally speaking, we need at least two parties; both have to have legal "capacity". a small child or an idiot cannot legally enter into a contract. one side must make an "offer"; the other side must "accept" it. "offer" and "acceptance" are ordinary english words, but they have specialized, technical meanings in law. a department store ad which announces an "offer" of a sewing machine for sale at a low price, as a "thursday only special", is probably not making a legal offer. for one thing, there is no actual promise to sell the sewing machines. if, for example, the public gobbles up the stock, the store does not have to sell sewing machines to disappointed customers. an "offer", however, has to be legally a promise.

　　"offer and acceptance" are promises, then, and they must be supported by a mysterious substance called "consideration". this is an intricate legal concept, hard to dine in a sentence or two. the underlying idea, however, is fairly simple. each party to a contract makes his

　　promise in "consideration" of something which the other one promises. if i offer to sell my old car for $2,000, and the buyer accepts (promising to pay $2,000) the "consideration" on each side is clear. but if i promise to give my daughter a handful of diamonds because i love her, there is no "consideration" for my promise; she contributes nothing in return. (love, alas, does not count in the law of contracts. ) here, if i fail to deliver(or die bore i get a chance to) she has no right to sue me or my estate and claim the diamonds.

　　there are, of course, many other issues in the law of contracts. samuel willistons4&aposs treatise on contract law —— the leader in the field for many years —— lumbers through volume after volume. there is, however, some question whether all this lore matters very much in the world of affairs. in classic article, the behavior of businessmen was explored in wisconsin. it was found that many of them tended to avoid or sidestep (formal) contract law and contract doctrine. they especially shied away from suing each other, even when they has a "good case" according to law. the reason was not at all mysterious.

　　businessmen depended on each other; they lived and worked in networks of continuing relationships. a manufacturer might buy paper clips, pens, and office supplies from the same dealer, year in and year out. suing at the drop of the hat, or arguing excessively, or sticking up for abstract "rights", was disruptive; it tended to rip a

　　part these valuable relationships. also, there were norms, practices, and conceptions of honor and fairness that businessmen customarily followed. these were more subtle, more complicated, than the formal norms of the lawyers.

　　"contract law" is a standard first-year course in every law school. yet it is probably less important a part of the living law than other fields which build on contract law or contract ideas. one of these fields is commercial law. this is the branch of law that concerns the buying and selling of goods, especially sales for credit and on the installment plan; it also deals with checks, promissory notes, and other "negotiable instruments". another related field is the law of bankruptcy and creditor&aposs rights, a bankrupt business or individual goes through a process that wipes the slate clean and allows the bankrupt to begin again. even more important, the bankruptcy process is designed to ensure fairness to all of the creditors. it tries to avoid a dog-eat-dog struggle over the assets of wrecked businesses and failed debtors. bankruptcy law is a federal concern and is administered in the federal courts. another rapidly growing field is the law of consumer protection. still other fields concern themselves with special kinds of contract —— for example, contracts of insurance. insurance contracts, like the insurance business, are quite heavily regulated and subject to distinctive rules.

　　译文

　　合同是法之实体，大体上是规范自由订立之契约的。大多数人或多或少明白订立合同的含义，他们

　　知道合同就是两个(或更多)人之间的协议或契约，或为揽活，或买卖货物，或拆造房屋，或干其他任何一项工作，一个人或一家公司答应这么做以换取对方的约定(通常指支付钱款的约定)。

　　里，梅因描述了几个世纪来法律在“进步”(即现代化)的社会里的发展。这种发展是“从身份到合同”。他的意思是现代社会的法律关系并不主要依赖于出身或阶级，而是依赖于自愿订立的契约。伊丽莎白二世生来就是英国女王，但我购买一辆二手的黄色普利茅斯轿车并不是我天生的行为;而是因为我同意购买此车，独立地作为一个成年人自愿作出的决定。

　　从这个意义上说，合同制度对于现代社会是至关重要的。整个经济——或更多，整个社会制度——有赖于它。但合同制度也是一个合同体系——就是一个经济体围绕自由订立契约运转，主要由市场调节———它其实与传统上的定义和法学院所教的合同法并不相同。合同法其实只是解决市场的某些方面、某些种类的契约。

　　在法律术语中，合同就是一个承诺(或一系列承诺)，受到法律的保护并由它执行。如果我答应运送一卡车木材，买方答应以某个价格付款，而我并未运送木材去，那么我“违反”了我的合同。买方可以向我诉求损害赔偿金——如果他选择诉讼的话。

　　一般而言，为订立一份有效合同，至少需要两方当事人;他们都必须具有法律上的“行为能力”。小孩或白痴在法律上不能订立合同。一方必须提出“要约”，另一方必须“承诺”，“要约”和“承诺”是极普通的英文单词，但它们在法律上具有专业的技术含义。一家百货店在广告中宣布作为“星期四特价”以低价出售一种缝纫机，这其实不是法律上的要约。因为首先，它并无出售这种缝纫机的实际承诺，例如，如果人们买完了其库存，商店无须向失望而归的顾客出售这种缝纫机。但是“要约”必须是法律上的一种约定。

　　那么，“要约”和“承诺”是约定，必须受到一种称为“约因”的神秘东西的支持。它是一个复杂的法律概念，一两句话难以定义。但其根本含义是相当简单的。合同各方都在 “考虑”他方的承诺之后才能作出自己的承诺。如果我出价2 000美元出售我的旧车，而买方接受了(答应出2 000美元)，各方的“约因”是相当清楚的。但如果我因为深爱我的女儿而答应送给她几粒钻石，那么我的承诺里就没有“约因”，她无须回报什么。(啊哈，合同法是不考虑爱的)这里，如果我未践诺(或送钻石前死亡)，她就无权诉我或我的财产并要求得到钻石。

　　当然，合同法里还有其他一些问题。塞缪尔。威利斯顿——合同法领域多年的权威，他的一卷卷合同法论文里充斥了这些问题。但是，一个疑问是这些学问在商务中是否重要。其中的一篇经典文章考察了威斯康星州商人的商务活动，结果发现许多商人尽量想避免或回避(正式的)合同法和合同准则。他们特别想避免相互起诉，即使在法律上他们有“足够的理由”。其原因一点也不神秘，因为商人们相互依存;他们生活和工作在一个存续关系的网络中。一个生产厂商可能总是向同一个供应商订购回形针、钢笔和其他办公用品，年复一年。或动辄诉诸法庭，或过分地争辩，或死守抽象的“权利”，都是分裂性的行为，导致种种重要合作关系的破裂。而且，商人们会习惯性地遵守一些标准、惯例、名誉和公平的思想。这些要比法学家们的标准更微妙、更复杂。

　　“合同法”是每一所法学院标准的一年级课程，但它的重要性远不如以合同法或合同概念为基础的其他领域的现成法律。商法就属于这些领域之一。它是关于货物买卖，特别是信用和分期付款买卖的部门法;它也是处理支票、本票及其他“可转让票据”的法律。另一相

　　关领域是破产法和债权人法。破产企业和个人经历了免除义务程序后，破产程序正式开始。更重要的是，破产程序是设计来确保所有债权人公平的，它尽量避免对破产企业资产和破产债务人“狗咬狗”的争斗。破产法是整个联邦的事情，因此由联邦法庭管理。另一个快速发展的领域是消费者保护法。还有其他一些领域是关于特殊种类的合同——例如，保险合同。保险合同像保险业务一样被严格监管并服从于特殊的规定。

　　以上详细介绍了英语词汇学习中，商务英语词汇contracts合同这个词语的真正含义，以及用法和注意事项，大家看了之后都能理解了吧。想要彻底的记住词汇，并正确的运用，就要从根本上弄明白它的真正含义才可以。

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