Invitation to treat

• Main Authors: Ali Mohamed, Ashgar Ali, Masum, Ahmad, Lilienthal, Gary, Ahmad, Muhamad Hassan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: CLJ Malaysia Sdn Bhd 2024
• Subjects: K Law (General); K600 Private Law
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/115756/1/115756_Invitation%20to%20treat.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/115756/; https://www.cljlaw.com/store/product/contract-law-in-malaysia/

A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more persons by which legal rights and obligations are created. A contract is analysed in terms of “offer” and “acceptance” in that an offer is a proposal that may lead to an agreement when it is accepted. If there is an acceptance, the offeror shall be bound by the law to perform his promise. He cannot revoke his offer after its acceptance, and he must be prepared to complete his promise. Further, the parties to a contract must have an intention to create legally binding relations. This is apart from the offer, acceptance, and consideration. For a valid contract to be deemed valid, “there must be separate and definite parties thereto; those parties must be in agreement, that is there must be a consensus ad idem; those parties must intend to create legal relations in the sense that the promises of each side are to be enforceable simply because they are contractual promises and the promises of each party must be supported by consideration”.1 The term “proposal” instead of an offer as adopted by s. 2(a) of the Contracts Act 1950 is defined as “when one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to the act or abstinence, he is said to make a proposal”.2 An invitation to treat has to be distinguished from a proposal or an offer in that in the former it is generally not capable of being accepted in order to constitute a legal relationship between the inviter and the invitee.3 Having said the above, this chapter focuses the discussion on the invitation to treat.