Thinking in terms of contract defences

While the terminology of defences is commonplace in other fields of private law, contract lawyers seem relatively unaccustomed to thinking in terms of defences. For example, although the leading texts in other areas of private law reserve a prominent place for defences, 1 the present edition of Chitty on Contracts does not. 2 Similarly, although Andrew Burrows dedicates Part 4 of his Restatement of the English Law of Unjust Enrichment to defences,3 he includes no equivalent section in his Restatement of the English Law of Contract. Indeed, references to 'defences' in that work are few and far between.