7.01 This chapter considers the place of contractual estoppel among other categories of estoppel.1 It starts with consideration of the issue, raised both judicially and academically, whether contractual estoppel is really an estoppel, or an anomaly, or altogether a misnomer. It then considers the principled basis of contractual estoppel and examines points of distinction from reliance-based estoppels,2 and those of distinction from and affinity with estoppel by deed.