THE LEGAL EFFECTS OF THE OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE AS INITIATIVES FOR CONCLUDING A CONTRACT

Abstract

Contracts as bilateral legal acts and a source of obligation are an expression of the free will of the parties in terms of their occurrence, content, form and identity of the issuer of the statement. The conclusion of agreements is the most common result of previously conducted negotiations. It is no coincidence that we say "most common", because agreements can be made independently of the conduct of negotiations, through the filtering of special types of statements that reflect the will of the contracting parties at the level of a single contact - making an offer and accepting.
The process of globalization, innovations in information technology and the progressive increase of the needs in the economy for dynamic and mass turnover undoubtedly impose the questions about the offer as a legal institute, the characteristic of obligation in terms of its content and acceptance. The offer and the acceptance of the offer (acceptance) are an essential segment, pivotal stages in the process of creating the contracts. That is why their definition is of particular importance. In the focus of closer determination of the general „concept of the offer” and the „acceptance of the offer”, subject of interest of this paper, it is necessary to specifically identify their key elements and essential differences for qualitative differentiation in relation to other initiatives for concluding a contract (memorandum of cooperation, call for bids, preliminary negotiations, etc.) However, what distinguishes the offer and the acceptance in relation to the other actions that also aim at concluding a certain contract in the later stages are their seriousness and specificity. Special emphasis is placed on the questions about the content of the offer, the form, its obligation, the possibility of revocation and the acceptance as its desired consequence. Through the results obtained from the method of qualitative analysis, the author's goal is to try to point out the central features that are relevant to the subject matter. Especially at a time when the offer and the acceptance are gaining more importance due to the more frequent court proceedings in which the subject of dispute is the proving of the fact whether the agreement has been concluded, as well as whether the parties are in a committed relationship or it is about one of the initial acts for concluding the contracts. In that part, the author will present the existing solutions in the national legislation with all disputable issues, critical remarks and practical consequences that may occur in the application of individual provisions on offer and acceptance, but also examples from the system of case law which abounds in positive and unusual cases from court practice.