What Is Consensus Ad Idem?
The Latin term consensus ad idem, an “agreement of the minds,” is used to describe a situation where people fully understand a contract and their role in it. Consensus or agreement on a contract is considered a necessary condition of a valid contract in many legal systems, under the argument that people who are not aware of or do not understand a contract cannot be held responsible for it. In a written contract, the presence of clauses spelling out the specifics of the contract is used to show that a consensus ad idem was reached during the development of the contract, as anyone who signs the contract should have read and understood the terms.
