[Music] now for something completely different or maybe not that different we've been talking about the move from promises to bargains the contracts the basis of contract is mutual promises but not every promise leads to a contract for instance promises in which the person who makes the promise or in law is called the promise or doesn't expect to find himself in court and in this situation like the invitation to dinner shouldn't end up in court and you remember Leonard against PepsiCo with a Harrier jet that's another example by and large and later on we'll see some very important exceptions to this by and large the class of promises serious promises if you like let's call them public promises not private promises or joke promises or gift promises the law goes further in that class and says in order to be sure this is serious business that the parties are serious about it and that it's worth our taking our time in court and judges and so on it's best that the promise be part of a bargain that is a promise given for something here are two straightforward examples I go into a store and pick up some Goods and I promise to pay for them they've given me the goods and I've given them my promise to pay fine a contract or I go into an antique shop and see an old desk I like I promise to buy it to pay for it and the shop owner promises to deliver it to my house next week he's got to polish it up and he doesn't have a delivery truck just now and so on for there to be a bargain there has to be something exchanged something given on each side in the first case the goods in the store paid for at the checkout counter in that case it's a promise for a performance I think the goods then in there or it's a promise for a promise promise to pay for the desk and the promise to deliver the desk either way there's an exchange now the person who initiates the exchange can set the terms of the exchange that's what makes him the offer or I offer the exchange and the other side who sometimes in law is called the offeree he accepts any accepts either by accepting through making a promise of his own or maybe by an actual performance now when he says a promise of his own for him to say yes that counts as a promise will you promise to do this yes by the way it could be a performance in return for a promise so I can give the antique dealer the $500 that's the performance and he can promise to deliver that's a performance for a promise either way it's bilateral and the contract is formed when the offer is accepted what happens if I offer to buy this desk this beautiful old desk and I say I'll buy this desk for $500 the antique dealer says I'd be glad to sell it to you for 750 is that a bargain well it obviously isn't imagine if the buyer was somehow compelled now to pay 750 dollars and get the desk that wouldn't be right at all because the Buy the offer or has stated his terms I will promise to pay $500 for the desk but I haven't offered to pay whatever you charge that would be a ridiculous thing to do and that illustrates that in order for the antique dealer to accept the promise he's got to accept the offer I made he can't accept some other offer that he might wish I had made and the way that the law of contracts puts it is the offer or is the master of the bargain that sounds rather dramatic but it's only common sense how could it be otherwise how could it be otherwise then that the bargain is whatever the person who initiates it proposes and what the person to whom it is proposed accepts if the person accepts something else then obviously there is no bargain and the idea that I would be bound just by walking into the store and offering something to then have to pay a great deal more is not the model of an exchange that we've been talking about