Contract Codified civil-law form, common-law content: the Code's articles carrying the Anglo- Indian doctrines — the hybrid system; The definition's enforceability test (agreement + legal enforceability); The capacity design: 18-years majority; the unsound-mind bar; the disqualified-by-law category; The formality selectivity: oral, written, or by conduct valid; the defined formalities mandatory where prescribed (registration-linked contracts); The good-faith performance standard (the civil-law family's signature: the duty to perform honestly, cooperate, inform); The nominate-contract breadth: 16 chapters — from sale to jyala-majduri (the wage-labour contract's unusual codification — the social dimension); The remedy architecture: rescission, compensation (actual-and-foreseeable loss), specific performance, injunction, quantum meruit (Unit 11); The dispute-resolution pluralism: courts + arbitration (the Arbitration Act 2055) + mediation (the Mediation Act 2068) + local dispute-resolution bodies (Unit 17's arbitration chapter). Exam Focus Long questions: "Define contract and explain 'all agreements are not contracts.'" / "State the essentials of a valid contract under the Muluki Civil Code 2074." / "Trace the historical development of Nepalese contract law from the Muluki Ain to the Civil Code 2074." Short questions: nudum pactum; the three forms of contract; quasi vs. contingent; the Code's 16-chapter nominate breadth; jyala-majduri; the 2056 Act → 2074 Code transition.
Trick areas: (i) enforceability is the contract's differentiating element — agreement alone is not contract; (ii) the Code 2074 recognizes verbal and conduct-formed contracts — writing is not generally required, only for the prescribed classes; (iii) consideration is not the Code's definitional element (unlike the Indian Act's section 2(d) world) — but "no consideration no contract" survives as the working rule with the Code's own exceptions (Unit 3); (iv) the wagering agreement is void, the contingent contract valid — the parties' interest in the event the dividing line; (v) Nepal's majority for contracting: 18 years; (vi) the Code came into force 17 August 2018 — cases before that date arise under the Contract Act 2056 (the prescribed cases' era).