2.2 Acceptance

Meaning: the offeree's unqualified assent — the mirror-image of the offer: "an acceptance is to an offer what a lighted match is to a train of gunpowder" (the classical image): once complete, the contract explodes into existence. Rules regarding valid acceptance (the five): Absolute and unqualified — the conditional or varied assent is a counter-offer, not acceptance; In the prescribed or usual mode — where the offer prescribes the manner (the prescribed manner's or an equally prompt equivalent's rule); Before the offer's lapse or revocation — the expired offer cannot be accepted; By the offeree, and only the offeree — the stranger's "acceptance" is nothing (the specific offer's rule; the tender's assignment problem); Communicated to the offeror — the mental assent insufficient: the acceptance must be expressed by performance or promise, and its communication completed (the dispatch-or- receipt moments per the Code's rules). Communication of acceptance — the four routes (the syllabus's own structure): By performance: the acceptance by acting — the reward cases: the performance IS the acceptance (the general offer's rule; the Code's public-proposal provision); By promissory acceptance: the return promise communicated — the bilateral contract's standard route; By silence or inaction: the general rule — silence is not acceptance (the imposed-bargain bar: no one can thrust a contract upon another's quiet); the recognized exceptions: the offeror's own…