Q.Define offer. State the legal rules governing a valid offer.

An offer is the starting point of every contract, but the law is strict about what actually counts as one.

Section 2(a) defines a proposal (offer): "When one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to such act or abstinence, he is said to make a proposal."

Rules governing a valid offer:

• Must be made with intention to create legal relations, not as a joke or a mere statement of intention.
• Terms must be clear, definite and certain.
• Must be communicated to the offeree.
• Must be distinguished from an invitation to offer (e.g. goods in a shop window, an advertisement, a tender notice) — these only invite offers from others.
• A counter-offer rejects the original offer and becomes a fresh offer.
• A cross offer (identical offers crossing each other) does not create a contract.
• May be general (to the public) or specific (to a particular person), and may be a standing/continuing offer valid over a period.

Treating an advertisement or a shop's price display as an 'offer' rather than an invitation to offer — this reverses who is legally bound to whom.