ABSTRACT
Jurists often describe, or even define, contractual offers as conditional promises, but multiple linguistic intuitions suggest that offers to enter into contracts are neither promises that are somehow made upon the occurrence of a later condition (acceptance) nor unconditional commitments (‘promises’) with conditional content. In short, it seems that English conditionals and promises cannot be semantically composed so as to generate the apparent meaning of typical contractual offers. This presentation leverages independent evidence that natural language permits interrogatives to be integrated into propositions and promotes a novel analysis of bilateral offers as simultaneous questions and assertions.
Buffington, Joe, It’s Not a Contractual Offer, Unless It’s a Question (March 25, 2023).
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