“All contracts are agreements, but all agreements are not contracts”. Comment.

An agreement comes into existence when one party makes a proposal or offer to the other party and that other party gives his acceptance to it. A contract is an agreement enforceable by law. It means that to become a contract, an agreement must give rise to a legal obligation i.e. duly enforceable by law. If an agreement is incapable of creating a duly enforceable by law, it is not a contract. There can be agreements which are not enforceable by law, such as social, moral or religious agreements. The agreement is a wider term than the contract. All agreements need not necessarily become contracts but all contracts shall always be agreements. All agreements are not contracts: When there is an agreement between the parties and they do not intend to create a legal relationship, it is not a contract. All contracts are agreements: For a contract there must be two things (a) an agreement and (b) enforceability by law. Thus, existence of an agreement is a pre-requisite existence of a contract. Therefore, it is true to say that all contracts are agreements. Thus, we can say that there can be an agreement without it becoming a contract, but we can’t have a contract without an agreement.