Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

illusory promise

A promise that appears on its face to be so insubstantial as to impose no obligation on the promisor; an expression cloaked in promissory terms but actually containing no commitment by the promisor. ( For example, if a guarantor promises to make good on the principal debtor's obligation "as long as I think it's in my commercial interests," the promisor is not really bound. "An apparent promise which, according to its terms, makes performance optional with the promisor no matter what may happen, or no matter what course of conduct in other respects he may pursue, is in fact no promise. Such an expression is often called an illusory promise." Samuel Williston, A Treatise on the Law of Contracts § lA, at 5 (Walter H.E. Jaeger ed., 3d ed. 1957).