Illegal and invalid contracts in English law comparative study

Abstract

The English common law, whose origins are based upon custom and judicial precedents, including the doctrine of illegality to nullify contracts. And according to which, contracts are classified into illegal and void ones, according to the intention or the purpose of the contracting parties. Whether it was legal or illegal. If it is illegal, then the contract will also be illegal, and therefore it is prohibited from being concluded. But if the purpose aimed at by the contracting parties is legal, but it lacks one of its basic elements, then the contract will be void. Whereas in the comparative law, which is represented in our study by the French Civil code of 1804, and the Iraqi civil law No. (40) of 1951 and the Bahraini civil law No. (19) of 2001, included general rules to determine both the illegal and void contracts. As well as, dealing with some of them, such as the contracts of gambling and betting. It is also worth bearing in mind that the French civil code has changed its situation concerning the nullity of contracts after the fundamental amendment made by the French legislator according to the ordinance n° 2016-131 dated February 10, 2016. Which included a lot of fundamental changes, the most important of which was the modification of the basic elements of the contract.