ABSTRACT
In fact, the cases where the rules of consideration have been applied to deprive a promise of its legal force may well, on closer examination, be ‘cases in which public policy has been held to invalidate the consideration’.82 This suggests that the problem of consideration must be looked at not just in the context of the dichotomy between commercial and non-commercial relationships, although public policy can of course be of relevance to ‘commercial reality’. It must be looked at in the context of the distinction between public and private law (cf Chapter 8 § 4(c)) as well. Consideration is a useful device for defining the boundaries between public and private obligations, particularly where a public organ such as the police finds itself performing services for the private sector.83 And in understanding how the common law approaches questions of sufficiency of consideration, it is as important to look at the nature of any pre-existing legal or factual relationships as it is to look at the economic value of the alleged consideration itself.
