The parties to a contract cannot possibly think about and agree on terms that cover every possible aspect of their transaction. In many cases, they concern themselves with, and agree on, only the terms that matter most to them. They are content to let the law take care of the rest.

The law does this by putting relevant and well established terms into particular kinds of contract, but only to the extent that such terms are required to fill the gaps left by the parties.

We are not talking now of the 'universal' terms that are imposed into every contract. We are talking of terms that are put (or implied) into a particular type, class or 'genus' of contract. For this reason these terms are sometimes referred to as 'generic terms'.   Examples of contracts for which there are generic terms include: contracts for the sale of goods, contracts for the provision of services, goods leases, bailment, and contracts of employment.

There are too many different kinds of contract and generic terms to deal with them all in this module but this section gives some examples of important generic terms in selected kinds of contract.