Is breaking a contract breaking a law? Forum

[sighsigh]

Not a law student or anything, but I was curious and can't find a good answer anywhere.

Is it considered illegal to break a contract? Is there a law out there stating "thou shall not break contracts?" Feel free to define terms or whatever. Thanks.

[cinephile]

Are you planning on breaking a contract?

[ph14]

Not a law student or anything, but I was curious and can't find a good answer anywhere.

Is it considered illegal to break a contract? Is there a law out there stating "thou shall not break contracts?" Feel free to define terms or whatever. Thanks.

Yes, it's actually in the Constitution! It's called the "Contracts Clause" and it's at Art. 1, section 10, cl. 1.

[Bobnoxious]

Not a law student or anything, but I was curious and can't find a good answer anywhere.

Is it considered illegal to break a contract? Is there a law out there stating "thou shall not break contracts?" Feel free to define terms or whatever. Thanks.

Yes, it's actually in the Constitution! It's called the "Contracts Clause" and it's at Art. 1, section 10, cl. 1.

Riiight! LOL

[ph14]

Not a law student or anything, but I was curious and can't find a good answer anywhere.

Is it considered illegal to break a contract? Is there a law out there stating "thou shall not break contracts?" Feel free to define terms or whatever. Thanks.

Yes, it's actually in the Constitution! It's called the "Contracts Clause" and it's at Art. 1, section 10, cl. 1.

Riiight! LOL

I know what i'm talking about. I got an A+ in my con law class!

[Bobnoxious]

OP...breach of contract all by itself isn't enough to rise to the level of a criminal act, such as larceny, so unless there are other elements that make the breach criminal it will remain a civil issue.

[danquayle]

OP...breach of contract all by itself isn't enough to rise to the level of a criminal act, such as larceny, so unless there are other elements that make the breach criminal it will remain a civil issue.

I layman's terms: no, contracts are private agreements between two parties. It is not "illegal." Where the law does come into play is in enforceability. If you breach a contract, the injured party can seek remedy in a court, which can vary from restitution damages to specific performance of the terms of the contract. Usually, its just damages though.

[ph14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_breach

[rinkrat19]

You could look this up in wikipedia yourself; no need to ask a law student.

You can break a contract and not, like, get arrested. It's not a crime. Sometimes it's actually better for both parties (efficient breach). If breaking the contract isn't best for both parties, then there are rules defining different remedies to even things back up. Stuff like making the other person pay for goods or perform a function after all, or pay what something would have been worth, or pay someone back for the money they spent depending on the assumption that they'd be getting the contract fulfilled.

[Bobnoxious]

OP - It is worth the effort to study and learn the ancient and powerful art of Google-fu, as some recent posters have so aptly demonstrated.

[sighsigh]

Doesn't the term illegal apply beyond criminal law?

I get the idea behind efficient breach in that it's less costly to break the contract and suffer penalties then to go through with the contract, so many people do just that. But that doesn't imply breaking a contract is legal. It may be less costly for me to jaywalk and pay a penalty than wait for the lights but that doesn't mean jaywalking is legal.

... doesn't the act of breaking a law imply a value judgement? Answer me this: is there an actual law that says "Do not commit murder"? Or does the law just go "if commit murder => X penalty."

Thanks for helping a newb out. ^_^

(Yeah I did do the obligatory Google searching for quite a while, but was not satisfied. That's why I came here. And I did mention this fact in my OP.)

[LeDique]

Why do I feel like this is part of your undergrad homework?

[Bobnoxious]

Why do I feel like this is part of your undergrad homework?

+1

[thesealocust]

De minimis non curat lex.

[Bobnoxious]

(Yeah I did do the obligatory Google searching for quite a while, but was not satisfied. That's why I came here. And I did mention this fact in my OP.)

Yes, you did a search, but the skill with which you performed the search appears to have been far below what would have been used by even a young student in the mystical art of Google-fu. Go, find a master and learn, grasshopper.

[cynthiad]

Doesn't the term illegal apply beyond criminal law?

I get the idea behind efficient breach in that it's less costly to break the contract and suffer penalties then to go through with the contract, so many people do just that. But that doesn't imply breaking a contract is legal. It may be less costly for me to jaywalk and pay a penalty than wait for the lights but that doesn't mean jaywalking is legal.

... doesn't the act of breaking a law imply a value judgement? Answer me this: is there an actual law that says "Do not commit murder"? Or does the law just go "if commit murder => X penalty."

Thanks for helping a newb out. ^_^

(Yeah I did do the obligatory Google searching for quite a while, but was not satisfied. That's why I came here. And I did mention this fact in my OP.)

There are laws that say murder is a criminal offense. They don't just specify a penalty, they define what kind of crime it is (depending on what degree etc). Same with other crimes.

[5ky]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_breach

[Tom Joad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_breach

180

[Myself]

.

[MinEMorris]

that Posner comic.. I don't even know what to say.

Doesn't the term illegal apply beyond criminal law?

I get the idea behind efficient breach in that it's less costly to break the contract and suffer penalties then to go through with the contract, so many people do just that. But that doesn't imply breaking a contract is legal. It may be less costly for me to jaywalk and pay a penalty than wait for the lights but that doesn't mean jaywalking is legal.

... doesn't the act of breaking a law imply a value judgement? Answer me this: is there an actual law that says "Do not commit murder"? Or does the law just go "if commit murder => X penalty."

Thanks for helping a newb out. ^_^

(Yeah I did do the obligatory Google searching for quite a while, but was not satisfied. That's why I came here. And I did mention this fact in my OP.)

I don't think the term "breaking the law" is supposed to have any deep significance. If you ignore the nature of the penalties involved and who is enforcing them (i.e. the police/prosecutors rather than the other party to the contract, in your example) then the significance of the difference between criminal and civil liability mostly vanishes. Heck, at the point that you wipe those factors, the difference between the law and some social norms disappears.

In common parlance, though, I think "breaking the law" usually refers specifically to criminal laws, or laws that can be enforced by police officers and that are typically punishable by deprivation of liberty. I don't think it's a very precise phrase; I imagine it came about through casual use rather than someone carefully crafting a gap-filler for our conceptualization of the law.

edit: one thing I owe you thanks for, OP, is that Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" is a lot more amusing if you think of it as a song about breaching a contract.

[Bobnoxious]

If you're interested in unpacking terms, I think there are much more interesting ones to ponder. To give a classic example, what in the hell do we possibly mean by "free will?" If our decisions are "caused" then doesn't that mean that they're predetermined? Even if we deem them causeless, can we imagine such a thing as a causeless occurrence that isn't simply random? Can we make sense out of a middle ground that matches our intuition about how free will works? And so begins the march through thousands of years of thought.. If these are the sorts of inquiries that interest you, law probably isn't what you want to do.

<chuckle> Show-off. UG = Philosophy or Political Science?

[LeDique]

If you're interested in unpacking terms, I think there are much more interesting ones to ponder. To give a classic example, what in the hell do we possibly mean by "free will?" If our decisions are "caused" then doesn't that mean that they're predetermined? Even if we deem them causeless, can we imagine such a thing as a causeless occurrence that isn't simply random? Can we make sense out of a middle ground that matches our intuition about how free will works? And so begins the march through thousands of years of thought.. If these are the sorts of inquiries that interest you, law probably isn't what you want to do.

<chuckle> Show-off. UG = Philosophy or Political Science?

Don't encourage it.

[MinEMorris]

<chuckle> Show-off. UG = Philosophy or Political Science?

I didn't mean to come off like that but I admit that when I reread my own message even I thought it came off as a little random and obnoxious. Edited. I was trying to think of a good example for OP of other terms that we use to distinguish between things that don't have very meaningful differences between them, and my mind ended up on a tangent where I ended up thinking about the term free will and I went with it. Not a philosophy or poly sci major, though I took a couple of classes in both subjects, so I had some exposure to topics like this. Though I think they're interesting, my experience of them is shallow. Which is probably why comic books have probably given deeper treatment to free will than I was able to give in my intro. Anyway, sorry for the aside.

[ninereal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_breach

this is the greatest thing I've ever seen