diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index 4fd015faf..3ebfbb577 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ Solving specific problems
 
    faq
    topics/debug
-   topics/testing
+   topics/contracts
    topics/firefox
    topics/firebug
    topics/leaks
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ Solving specific problems
 :doc:`topics/debug`
     Learn how to debug common problems of your scrapy spider.
 
-:doc:`topics/testing`
+:doc:`topics/contracts`
 	Learn how to use contracts for testing your spiders.
 
 :doc:`topics/firefox`
diff --git a/docs/topics/testing.rst b/docs/topics/contracts.rst
similarity index 97%
rename from docs/topics/testing.rst
rename to docs/topics/contracts.rst
index b24e62dce..8e98bf749 100644
--- a/docs/topics/testing.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/contracts.rst
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-.. _topics-testing:
+.. _topics-contracts:
 
-===============
-Testing Spiders
-===============
+=================
+Spiders Contracts
+=================
 
 Testing spiders can get particularly annoying and while nothing prevents you
 from writing unit tests the task gets cumbersome quickly. Scrapy offers an
diff --git a/scrapy/commands/check.py b/scrapy/commands/check.py
index 4b4566d11..13190e025 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/check.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/check.py
@@ -1,24 +1,22 @@
 from collections import defaultdict
 from functools import wraps
 
-from scrapy.conf import settings
 from scrapy.command import ScrapyCommand
-from scrapy.http import Request
 from scrapy.contracts import ContractsManager
-from scrapy.utils import display
 from scrapy.utils.misc import load_object
 from scrapy.utils.spider import iterate_spider_output
 from scrapy.utils.conf import build_component_list
 
+
 def _generate(cb):
     """ create a callback which does not return anything """
     @wraps(cb)
     def wrapper(response):
         output = cb(response)
         output = list(iterate_spider_output(output))
-        # display.pprint(output)
     return wrapper
 
+
 class Command(ScrapyCommand):
     requires_project = True
     default_settings = {'LOG_ENABLED': False}
@@ -31,14 +29,15 @@ class Command(ScrapyCommand):
 
     def add_options(self, parser):
         ScrapyCommand.add_options(self, parser)
-        parser.add_option("-l", "--list", dest="list", action="store_true", \
+        parser.add_option("-l", "--list", dest="list", action="store_true",
             help="only list contracts, without checking them")
 
-
     def run(self, args, opts):
         # load contracts
-        contracts = build_component_list(settings['SPIDER_CONTRACTS_BASE'],
-                settings['SPIDER_CONTRACTS'])
+        contracts = build_component_list(
+            self.settings['SPIDER_CONTRACTS_BASE'],
+            self.settings['SPIDER_CONTRACTS'],
+        )
         self.conman = ContractsManager([load_object(c) for c in contracts])
 
         # contract requests
diff --git a/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py b/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py
index 26cde61e3..fac226822 100644
--- a/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 import re
-import inspect
 from functools import wraps
 
 from scrapy.http import Request
 from scrapy.utils.spider import iterate_spider_output
-from scrapy.utils.misc import get_spec
+from scrapy.utils.python import get_spec
 from scrapy.exceptions import ContractFail
 
+
 class ContractsManager(object):
     contracts = {}
 
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ class ContractsManager(object):
 
         return contracts
 
-    def from_method(self, method):
+    def from_method(self, method, fail=False):
         contracts = self.extract_contracts(method)
         if contracts:
             # calculate request args
@@ -43,12 +43,13 @@ class ContractsManager(object):
 
                 # execute pre and post hooks in order
                 for contract in reversed(contracts):
-                    request = contract.add_pre_hook(request)
+                    request = contract.add_pre_hook(request, fail)
                 for contract in contracts:
-                    request = contract.add_post_hook(request)
+                    request = contract.add_post_hook(request, fail)
 
                 return request
 
+
 class Contract(object):
     """ Abstract class for contracts """
 
@@ -56,26 +57,36 @@ class Contract(object):
         self.method = method
         self.args = args
 
-    def add_pre_hook(self, request):
+    def add_pre_hook(self, request, fail=False):
         cb = request.callback
+
         @wraps(cb)
         def wrapper(response):
-            try: self.pre_process(response)
+            try:
+                self.pre_process(response)
             except ContractFail as e:
-                print e.format(self.method)
+                if fail:
+                    raise
+                else:
+                    print e.format(self.method)
             return list(iterate_spider_output(cb(response)))
 
         request.callback = wrapper
         return request
 
-    def add_post_hook(self, request):
+    def add_post_hook(self, request, fail=False):
         cb = request.callback
+
         @wraps(cb)
         def wrapper(response):
             output = list(iterate_spider_output(cb(response)))
-            try: self.post_process(output)
+            try:
+                self.post_process(output)
             except ContractFail as e:
-                print e.format(self.method)
+                if fail:
+                    raise
+                else:
+                    print e.format(self.method)
             return output
 
         request.callback = wrapper
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_contracts.py b/scrapy/tests/test_contracts.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b35e57519
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_contracts.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+from twisted.trial import unittest
+
+from scrapy.spider import BaseSpider
+from scrapy.http import Request
+from scrapy.item import Item, Field
+from scrapy.exceptions import ContractFail
+from scrapy.contracts import ContractsManager
+from scrapy.contracts.default import (
+    UrlContract,
+    ReturnsContract,
+    ScrapesContract,
+)
+
+
+class TestItem(Item):
+    name = Field()
+    url = Field()
+
+
+class ResponseMock(object):
+    url = 'http://scrapy.org'
+
+
+class TestSpider(BaseSpider):
+    name = 'demo_spider'
+
+    def returns_request(self, response):
+        """ method which returns request
+        @url http://scrapy.org
+        @returns requests 1
+        """
+        return Request('http://scrapy.org', callback=self.returns_item)
+
+    def returns_item(self, response):
+        """ method which returns item
+        @url http://scrapy.org
+        @returns items 1 1
+        """
+        return TestItem(url=response.url)
+
+    def returns_fail(self, response):
+        """ method which returns item
+        @url http://scrapy.org
+        @returns items 0 0
+        """
+        return TestItem(url=response.url)
+
+    def scrapes_item_ok(self, response):
+        """ returns item with name and url
+        @url http://scrapy.org
+        @returns items 1 1
+        @scrapes name url
+        """
+        return TestItem(name='test', url=response.url)
+
+    def scrapes_item_fail(self, response):
+        """ returns item with no name
+        @url http://scrapy.org
+        @returns items 1 1
+        @scrapes name url
+        """
+        return TestItem(url=response.url)
+
+    def parse_no_url(self, response):
+        """ method with no url
+        @returns items 1 1
+        """
+        pass
+
+
+class ContractsManagerTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    contracts = [UrlContract, ReturnsContract, ScrapesContract]
+
+    def test_contracts(self):
+        conman = ContractsManager(self.contracts)
+
+        # extract contracts correctly
+        contracts = conman.extract_contracts(TestSpider.returns_request)
+        self.assertEqual(len(contracts), 2)
+        self.assertEqual(frozenset(map(type, contracts)),
+            frozenset([UrlContract, ReturnsContract]))
+
+        # returns request for valid method
+        request = conman.from_method(TestSpider.returns_request)
+        self.assertIsNotNone(request)
+
+        # no request for missing url
+        request = conman.from_method(TestSpider.parse_no_url)
+        self.assertIsNone(request)
+
+    def test_returns(self):
+        conman = ContractsManager(self.contracts)
+
+        spider = TestSpider()
+        response = ResponseMock()
+
+        # returns_item
+        request = conman.from_method(spider.returns_item, fail=True)
+        output = request.callback(response)
+        self.assertEqual(map(type, output), [TestItem])
+
+        # returns_request
+        request = conman.from_method(spider.returns_request, fail=True)
+        output = request.callback(response)
+        self.assertEqual(map(type, output), [Request])
+
+        # returns_fail
+        request = conman.from_method(spider.returns_fail, fail=True)
+        self.assertRaises(ContractFail, request.callback, response)
+
+    def test_scrapes(self):
+        conman = ContractsManager(self.contracts)
+
+        spider = TestSpider()
+        response = ResponseMock()
+
+        # scrapes_item_ok
+        request = conman.from_method(spider.scrapes_item_ok, fail=True)
+        output = request.callback(response)
+        self.assertEqual(map(type, output), [TestItem])
+
+        # scrapes_item_fail
+        request = conman.from_method(spider.scrapes_item_fail, fail=True)
+        self.assertRaises(ContractFail, request.callback, response)
diff --git a/scrapy/utils/misc.py b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
index 62fe4c3c1..99e5317f2 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/misc.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
@@ -104,18 +104,3 @@ def md5sum(file):
             break
         m.update(d)
     return m.hexdigest()
-
-def get_spec(func):
-    """Returns (args, kwargs) tuple for a function
-
-    >>> import re
-    >>> get_spec(re.match)
-    (['pattern', 'string'], {'flags': 0})
-    """
-    spec = inspect.getargspec(func)
-    defaults = spec.defaults or []
-
-    firstdefault = len(spec.args) - len(defaults)
-    args = spec.args[:firstdefault]
-    kwargs = dict(zip(spec.args[firstdefault:], defaults))
-    return args, kwargs
diff --git a/scrapy/utils/python.py b/scrapy/utils/python.py
index 82c953abc..64117d1d1 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/python.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/python.py
@@ -158,6 +158,42 @@ def get_func_args(func):
         raise TypeError('%s is not callable' % type(func))
     return func_args
 
+def get_spec(func):
+    """Returns (args, kwargs) tuple for a function
+    >>> import re
+    >>> get_spec(re.match)
+    (['pattern', 'string'], {'flags': 0})
+
+    >>> class Test(object):
+    ...     def __call__(self, val):
+    ...         pass
+    ...     def method(self, val, flags=0):
+    ...         pass
+
+    >>> get_spec(Test)
+    (['self', 'val'], {})
+
+    >>> get_spec(Test.method)
+    (['self', 'val'], {'flags': 0})
+
+    >>> get_spec(Test().method)
+    (['self', 'val'], {'flags': 0})
+    """
+
+    if inspect.isfunction(func) or inspect.ismethod(func):
+        spec = inspect.getargspec(func)
+    elif hasattr(func, '__call__'):
+        spec = inspect.getargspec(func.__call__)
+    else:
+        raise TypeError('%s is not callable' % type(func))
+
+    defaults = spec.defaults or []
+
+    firstdefault = len(spec.args) - len(defaults)
+    args = spec.args[:firstdefault]
+    kwargs = dict(zip(spec.args[firstdefault:], defaults))
+    return args, kwargs
+
 def equal_attributes(obj1, obj2, attributes):
     """Compare two objects attributes"""
     # not attributes given return False by default