Return to search

Standardized contracts in a bi-jural state : the United Republic of Cameroon

Within the past decade, there has been considerable debate amongst lawyers in most European and North American jurisdictions on standardized contracts. The realisation that these contracts did not fit into the framework of the law of contract elaborated by nineteenth-centry theorists, induced judges and academic alike to fashion concepts and mechanisms in order to tackle the undoubted injustices which were concomitant with the use of standardized contracts. These well meaning attemtps, while affording some protection to weaker contracting parties, were nevertheless productive of uncertainty and inconsistency. Hence, there has been in recent years a spate of legislation designed to deal with standardized contracts directly or indirectly. The adoption of modern economic institutions and also of Western legal systems in Cameroon has brought about significant problems in the realm of contract. The widespread illiteracy in Cameroon, the lack of commercial sophistication of the bulk of the populace, and the use of standardized contracts, have created problems of a much wider dimension than those to be found in the developed countries. This thesis involves a study in comparative law. It charts the ways in which the English and French courts have addressed the problems of standardized contracts. It also delves into how the Cameroonian courts have dealt with them, revealing the incongruities inherent in the application of concepts which have been evolved in a different country with distinct motives, in another country with entirely different social realities. Finally, this thesis looks at the legislative innovation; brought to this area of the law by four European countries and discerns what lessons can be learned from them by Cameroonian legislators in dealing with the problems of standardized contracts in Cameroon. All this is achieved by pulling together legal analysis and comments by Anglo-Americans and European scholars, and by weaving into the text nearly all important English, French, Cameroonian and indeed American cases on this subject.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:330762
Date January 1982
CreatorsDion-Ngute, Joseph
PublisherUniversity of Warwick
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/110263/

Page generated in 0.0024 seconds