Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Goods definition

What does Goods mean? In legal practice, goods are tangible, movable items that are bought, sold, supplied or hired under commercial or consumer contracts. Across the UK and Ireland, legislation defines the term: the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (England & Wales and Scotland), the Sale of Goods Act (Northern Ireland) 1979, and in Ireland the Sale of Goods Act 1893 as amended by the 1980 Act. Broadly, goods comprise all personal chattels (in Scotland, all corporeal moveables) other than money and things in action. The statutory definition includes emblements and industrial growing crops, and items attached to or forming part of land...

Contract certainty: how courts uphold agreements—custom, implication, reasonableness, interpretation, Sale of Goods Act 1979, and limits on agreements to agree

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Practice notes

The terms of an agreement can be so imprecise or indeterminate that they have no real meaning and are therefore not enforceable. Nevertheless, where parties have concluded a bargain, a court will seek to give that bargain effect. This Practice Note explains the nature of the certainty requirement and the ways in which courts have attempted to narrow its reach. For guidance on the general approach when assessing whether an enforceable contract exists and identifying its terms, see Practice Note: Forming enforceable contracts—the court’s general approach.

Requirement of certainty—the basic principle

A court will not enforce a contract that cannot be given a definite meaning (G. Scammell & Nephew v Ouston). In Scammell, the House of Lords decided that an agreement to obtain goods ‘on hire-purchase’ was too uncertain to enforce because there were many varieties of hire-purchase operating on very different terms. As a consequence, it was impossible to determine the terms on which the parties had agreed to contract. Parties must therefore ensure they express their agreement with sufficient clarity so that the meaning of those terms can be ascertained. Even so, where parties have reached agreement, a court will be slow...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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