Book Launch | Discharge of Contractual Obligations

Jordan English (Middle Temple Academic Fellow and Associate Professor of Law, University of Oxford) will be discussing his new book, Discharge of Contractual Obligations (Oxford University Press 2025), alongside a panel of esteemed speakers, including: 

• Lord Burrows (Justice of the United Kingdom Supreme Court)
• Professor Solène Rowan (Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, and Chair of Contract Law, King’s College London)
• Andrew Twigger KC (Barrister, Maitland Chambers)

The book (which has recently been shortlisted for the SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Early Career Scholarship) delves into a fundamental question: under what circumstances are parties released from their contractual duties for reasons other than performance of those duties? By re-examining cases of breach, frustration, and common mistake—three key doctrines in modern English contract law—this monograph demonstrates how these disparate areas of contract law are explicable as instances of the discharge of contractual obligations due to a failure of condition. Championing the once-dominant 'failure of condition' model in English law, the book argues that ordinarily, parties do not promise to perform 'no matter what,' but instead make promises that depend on various explicit and implicit conditions. Across ten comprehensive chapters, the book explores the theoretical and practical implications of the modern shift to the 'power to terminate' model. Recognising that a wholesale return to the failure of condition model is improbable, the book charts a pragmatic course, illustrating how several practical issues—such as whether a party in breach can terminate due to the other party's breach—are effectively rectified by revitalising this forgotten approach.

The panel, in addition to providing a general overview, will be discussing specific chapters from the book. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception. 

Student members (including transferring lawyers) must attend all elements of the event in order to be awarded the Qualifying Session. This includes any lecture/talk/reception/dinner/speeches.