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Full-Text Articles in Law

Prenuptial Agreements: A New Reason To Revive An Old Rule, Jeffrey G. Sherman Mar 2006

Prenuptial Agreements: A New Reason To Revive An Old Rule, Jeffrey G. Sherman

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No abstract provided.


The Return Of Bargain: An Economic Theory Of How Standard Form Contracts Negotiation Between Businesses And Consumers, Jason S. Johnston Mar 2006

The Return Of Bargain: An Economic Theory Of How Standard Form Contracts Negotiation Between Businesses And Consumers, Jason S. Johnston

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This paper analyzes standard form contracts between firms and individual consumers (and borrowers). It presents a mix of anecdotal and empirical evidence from a large number of industries demonstrating a widespread pattern in which firms refrain from enforcing the typically clear bright line performance obligations that such standard form contracts set out (such as a consumer credit repayment terms, or a retail consumer's right to return goods). Instead, firms routinely give their supervisory employees the discretion to bargain around such terms. Within a simple and informal model, the paper explains such delegated, discretionary renegotiation as a means by which firms …


Choice, Consent, And Cycling: The Hidden Limitations Of Consent, Leo Katz Feb 2006

Choice, Consent, And Cycling: The Hidden Limitations Of Consent, Leo Katz

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Most legal scholars assume that if V consents to allow D to do something to him, such consent makes D's actions legally and morally acceptable. To be sure, they are willing to make an exception when consent is given under a specified list of conditions: Force, fraud, incompetence, third-party effects, unequal bargaining power, commodification, paternalism - all of these may be grounds for rejecting the validity of V's consent. We might call scholars who take this view of consent quasi-libertarians. In this Article, I argue against the quasi-libertarian view of consent. My central claim is that the validity of consent …


The Best Puffery Article Ever, David A. Hoffman Jan 2006

The Best Puffery Article Ever, David A. Hoffman

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This Article provides the first extensive legal treatment of an important defense in the law of fraud and contracts: puffery. Legal authorities commonly say they make decisions about whether defendants should be able to utter exaggerated, optimistic, lies based on assumptions about buyer behavior, concluding that consumers do not rely on such speech. However, as the Article shows, such analyses are proxies for a deeper analytical question: does the speech encourage or discourage a type of consumption activity that the court deems welfare maximizing? The Article presents a novel constitutional analysis of puffery doctrine that focuses on the meaning of …


When Are Agreements Enforceable? Giving Consideration To Professor Barnett's Consent Theory Of Contract, James Maxeiner Jan 2006

When Are Agreements Enforceable? Giving Consideration To Professor Barnett's Consent Theory Of Contract, James Maxeiner

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This address considers five points: (1) the place of theory in American contract law; (2) the basic elements of Professor Barnett's theory are; (3) how these elements are similar to Continental law; (4) what it says about the American legal world that Barnett's theory has been discussed without reference to Continental systems; and, finally, (5) why I believe the American model is not a good one for a future European Civil Code but also hope that such a Code will become law.