法律英语-何家弘(17)

We have noted already that our society recognizes and protects a variety of types of property and personal rights.

2.我们已经注意到我们的社会已经承认并保护一系列的人身性和财产性权利。

9.为了保护基于合同的约定而在未来的时候，任何一方都履行自己合同义务的可期待性，合同法己成为我们社会对此予以调整的法律途径。比如转让有形和无形的财产、提供服务行为、支付报酬。

Ownership of property ordinarily includes the right to use and consume the thing owned, but in many cases it will be more to the advantage of the owner to transfer, or “convey,” the right of ownership to some other person in exchange for something else of value (money, perhaps, or the ownership 5

Before proceeding to examine contract law in more detail, we should point out here that our description of the relationship between the various “substantive” bodies of law that you will be encountering this year is necessarily an over-simplified one.

of some other property).

3.最初的财产所有权，包括使用和消灭自有物的权利，但通过许多判例，它发展为所在权人有交易或转让的权利，对于交换中的许多人来说，这种所有权具有更高的价值，它可能是金钱，也可能是其他财产的所有权。

A piano is more valuable to one who can play it than to one who cannot, and two lots of adjoining real property may be much more when combined into one parcel than when held separately.

4.一架钢琴对于会演奏它的人来说，价值要远高于那些不会弹奏的人；两个相邻的不动产，可能比两个彼此独立的不动产捆绑销售更有价值。

Similarly, the ownership of factory machinery may be much more valuable when it is combined with a right to the work of skilled technicians and laborers, a dependable source of supply of raw materials, and licenses to use patented processes in the manufacturing of goods.

5.同样地，当一家机器工厂拥有一群可以工作的技师和工人，有独立可靠的原材料供应渠道和加工产品时所需的专利许可的时候，它的所有权的价值要更高。

Agreements for exchange are the means by which such resources are

assembled and put to productive use.

6.为交换而订立的合同，意味着它可以集中并大量的被使用。

Some such agreements call for the immediate and simultaneous exchange of money for goods or services (your purchase of a morning paper, for instance, or of a hamburger or a haircut).

7.这种合同数量巨大，要求在购买货物或者服务的时候，即时支付合同规定的价钱，比如买早报、汉堡包或者去理发。

Where exchanges of any significant size are concerned, however, it is much more common for both the planning and the performance to be spread over a considerable period of time.

8.然而，进行那些重要的买卖合同的时候，合同通常会规定双方将在未来相当长的一段时间里要去履行的行为和计划。

The law of contracts is our society' legal mechanism for protecting the expectations that arise from the making of agreements for the future exchange of various types of performance, such as the conveyance of property (tangible and intangible), the performance of services, and the payment of money.

1.在更加细致地检查合同法之前，这里我们应指出必须先要弄清楚今年你们能遇到的不同的实体法之间的关系，这种关系有时候被描述的过于简单化。

Legal problems do not always fit neatly into the pigeonholes that legal theorists have created; frequently they raise issues involving more than one body of law.

2.法律问题并不总是很巧合地按照法律体系调整的类别来发生，有一些法律问题通常须由几个部门法共同来解决。

For instance, you will learn in this course that some types of conduct that we call “fraud” can constitute both a breach of contract and a tort.

3.例如，在课程里将会学到有多种欺诈行为合同法和侵权行为法都会调整到。

Lease agreements between landlord and tenant have historically been governed by rules of property law, but recently courts have tended to analyze their legal effect more in the manner traditionally applied to contracts.

4.传统上，地主与佃户之间出租土地契约的法律效力由财产法规则调整，但近年来，法院更倾向于使用传统意义上的合同法来分析他们的法律效力。

The web of the law may not be quite as seamless as the old saying would have it, but students and teachers alike must beware of falling into the trap of believing that our various legal categories are ironclad and unchanging; they are not.

5.法谚有云：“法网致密，无有疏漏”，尽管这种情况从来不会出现。可是，研习法律的老师和学生都应该小心不要陷入一个错误思维的窠臼：我们不同类型的法律都是坚不可破且永恒不变的，实际上它们并不这样。

Part Two Authority of Contract Law

第二部分合同法的法律渊源 1

Having presented our general definition of contract law, we next face the question: where is this law to be found?

1.上面已经分析过合同法的概念了，那接下来，我们就要解决“如何寻找合同法”这个问题。

From what sources—what “authority”—do courts derive the rules of law they apply to decide contract disputes?