Should the Postal Rule be Abolished? Contract law is a form of the law which focuses on agreements made between two or more parties. Contracts can be made in an informal manner and can also be made formally. Most people would recognise a contract to be a formal written document which states the conditions, warranties and description of an offer being made. However, that is not always the case. Contracts are made in countless different ways, and each have their own rules which also apply in various ways. One of the most questionable rules that is in common use in the law of contracts is the Postal Rule. The Postal Rule is one of the more disputed rules in contract law as there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the postal rule should …show more content…
An advantage of using the postal rule would be that the party which is accepting the contract will receive some immediate advantages of the acceptance. Another advantage of using the postal rule is the use of last-minute acceptances. An obvious advantage of using the postal rule for the acceptance of contracts is for the offeree. This is because if the contract falls through and the offeror tries to retracts the contract, the postal rule moves in the favour of the offeree. The reason why this would work is because the postal rule means that as soon as the acceptance is placed in the post box, the contract has been formed. Along with advantages always come disadvantages and the postal rule comes some disadvantages. One disadvantage of it is if the offeree of the contract declines the offer, then that offer cannot be accepted at any other time. Once the offer is rejected the whole offer is terminated permanently. Another disadvantage of the postal rule is that some people believe it to be outdated. In the age of more digital communication, some people may ask “why do we still use the postal …show more content…
If this question was raised twenty, even twenty-five years ago, the obvious answer would be no, as using the postal service was one of the best forms of communication. However, in this age surrounded by bigger and better forms of communication than the postal service, would we still need a rule like the postal rule? This brings several questions such as: would it be better if we didn’t have the postal rule? What would change if we rid of the postal rule? What wouldn’t change? If we didn’t get rid of the postal rule obviously, nothing would change. Nothing would be different as the postal rule is still a common use in contract law today. So, all the rules which apply to contracts using the postal services and the postal rule, would still apply and still be