Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

U.K. legislation that provides that, in principle, third parties will normally be able to claim under and enforce contracts subject to English law if that third party can argue to have been a beneficiary of the contract, unless it is clear that the parties to the contract did not intend to create such a right. For this reason, it is common to insert into contracts touching on the United Kingdom (and not just contracts with English/Scottish/Northern Ireland Law) a sentence specifically excluding in general any third party rights arising under the Act other than those third party rights specifically provided for.

A similar provision also exists under Singaporean law, See Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001, the Isle of Man and a few other jurisdictions that follow the English legal tradition, but not (yet) for example in the Republic of Ireland.

Related Terms