General agreements and contracts

In common law legal systems, a contract, or informally known as an agreement in some jurisdictions, is an agreement having a lawful object entered into voluntarily by two or more parties, each of whom intends to create one or more legal obligations between them. The elements of a contract are offer and acceptance by competent persons having legal capacity who exchange consideration to create mutuality of obligation. As specified by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods UNCISG of 1988 ratified by 83 countries, an offer to contract must be addressed to a person, be sufficiently definite – that is, describe the goods, quantity, and price – and indicate an intention for the offeror to be bound on acceptance.