The distinction between an agreement and contract are many. In essence, all contracts are agreements but not all agreements are contracts. Anything less than a contract may need the support of the provision of the 4 Specific Relief Act 1950 to provide relief for breach of an agreement. If it is a contractual breach, the right to relief is of right. However, if it is an agreement not capable of being construed as a prima facie contract, the reliefs for breach becomes precarious as well as limited. For example, under a breach of agreement one may only recover money paid or advance in a limited sense as opposed to breach of contract.
To put it mildly, inchoate agreements or what can be called as ‘coffee shop’ agreements have a chance to be enforced at common law but may fail under Contracts Act. In addition, ‘coffee shop’ agreements involving multiple parties and companies will not succeed even at common law because of the strict requirement of ‘consensus ad idem’. When it comes to a proper construction agreements and/or contracts, it is now a practice to include arbitration clause. This is so because of the technicalities involved in construction disputes and the jurisprudence that has been developed which is now specifically called “construction law”.
