Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

mutuality of obligation

The agreement of both parties to a contract to be bound in some way. - Also termed mutuality of contract. See MUTUAL ASSENT. "The doctrine of mutuality of obligation is commonly expressed in the phrase that in a bilateral contract both parties must be bound or neither is bound.' But this phrase is over-generalization because the doctrine is not one of mutuality of obligation but rather one of mutuality of consideration. Phrasing the rule in terms of mutuality of obligation rather tomutuality of obligation' should be abandoned and we must agree in the light of the confusion that this term has engendered." John D. Calamari & Joseph M. Perillo, The Law of Contracts § 4-12, at 226 (3d ed. 1987).