Contract Law

A&L Goodbody lawyers Abbey Walker, Keith Dunn and Mark Thompson consider whether WhatsApp messages and emojis can be legally binding. In today's digital age, the use of emojis and messaging platforms like WhatsApp have become commonplace in business communications. However, recent legal cases ha

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a restrictive covenant given by the developer of a Derry shopping centre in a lease that it granted to Dunnes Stores over part of the centre does not engage the doctrine of restraint of trade. Delivering the lead judgment, Lord Wilson overturned the findings of th

In-house lawyers are more likely to include pandemics in their standard force majeure clauses following the COVID-19 crisis, a survey conducted by business law firm Mason Hayes & Curran LLP has found. The survey of nearly 80 in-house lawyers from both the public and private sector shows that the

Scottish lawyer Richard McMeeken details new proposals to deal with the contract law implications of the current crisis. Following a meeting on 7 April 2020 of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law attended by (among others) Lord Neuberger, Lord Phillips, Sir David Edward and Si

An email with an "automatic" signature has the same legal effect as a signed document, the High Court of England and Wales has ruled in a dispute over the sale of a plot of land. The case, heard by Judge Pearce in Manchester, concerned a string of emails in which lawyers for two men involved in a pr