Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Law
Two Visions Of Contract, Hanoch Dagan
Two Visions Of Contract, Hanoch Dagan
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Justice in Transactions: A Theory of Contract Law. by Peter Benson.
A Comparative Fault Defense In Contract Law, Ariel Porat
A Comparative Fault Defense In Contract Law, Ariel Porat
Michigan Law Review
This Article calls for the recognition of a comparative fault defense in contract law. Part I sets the framework for this defense and suggests the situations in which it should apply. These situations are sorted under two headings: cases of noncooperation and cases of overreliance. Part II unfolds the main argument for recognizing the defense and recommends applying the defense only in cases where cooperation or avoidance of overreliance is low cost.
Why Breach Of Contract May Not Be Immoral Given The Incompleteness Of Contracts, Steven Shavell
Why Breach Of Contract May Not Be Immoral Given The Incompleteness Of Contracts, Steven Shavell
Michigan Law Review
There is a widely held view that breach of contract is immoral. I suggest here that breach may often be seen as moral, once one appreciates that contracts are incompletely detailed agreements and that breach may be committed in problematic contingencies that were not explicitly addressed by the governing contracts. In other words, it is a mistake generally to treat a breach as a violation of a promise that was intended to cover the particular contingency that eventuated.
Could Breach Of Contract Be Immoral?, Seana Shiffrin
Could Breach Of Contract Be Immoral?, Seana Shiffrin
Michigan Law Review
Some scholars defend the contract law's ban on punitive damage awards on the grounds that breach of contract, in itself, is not morally wrong. In this Article, I offer two responses. First, I refute one prevalent argument of Steven Shavell's in support of this view. Shavell argues that contractual breach is not immoral in those cases in which the legal regime would offer expectation damages because the contracting parties would not have agreed to require performance had they explicitly deliberated about the circumstances occasioning the breach. I criticize his argument for failing to justify this hypothetical-contract approach and, in any …
Is U.S. Ceo Compensation Inefficient Pay Without Performance?, John E. Core, Wayne R. Guay, Randall S. Thompson
Is U.S. Ceo Compensation Inefficient Pay Without Performance?, John E. Core, Wayne R. Guay, Randall S. Thompson
Michigan Law Review
In Pay Without Performance, Professors Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried develop and summarize the leading critiques of current executive compensation practices in the United States. This book, and their highly influential earlier article, Managerial Power and Rent Extraction in the Design of Executive Compensation, with David Walker offer a negative, if mainstream, assessment of the state of U.S. executive compensation: U.S. executive compensation practices are failing in a widespread manner, and much systemic reform is needed. The purpose of our Review is to summarize the book and to offer some counterarguments to try to balance what is becoming …
The Efficiency Of Specific Performance: Toward A Unified Theory Of Contract Remedies, Thomas S. Ulen
The Efficiency Of Specific Performance: Toward A Unified Theory Of Contract Remedies, Thomas S. Ulen
Michigan Law Review
The purpose of this essay is to begin the development of an integrated theory of contract remedies by delineating the circumstances under which courts should simply enforce a stipulated remedy clause or grant relief to the innocent party in the form of damages or specific performance. The conclusion, in brief, is that in the absence of stipulated remedies in the contract that survive scrutiny on the usual formation defenses, specific performance is more likely than any form of money damages to achieve efficiency in the exchange and breach of reciprocal promises. If specific performance is the routine remedy for breach, …
Sunday Laws-Illegality Of Sunday Contracts, Robert O. Hancox S.Ed.
Sunday Laws-Illegality Of Sunday Contracts, Robert O. Hancox S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The concept of the Sabbath, the setting apart of one day in seven as a day of rest, was derived from the Mosaic code, the Fourth Commandment directs abstention from labor on the seventh day of the week, and although there is nothing in the New Testament relating to Sunday, the Christian world adopted the first day of the week as a day of rest. Constantine, by an edict in 321 A.D., ordered the suspension on Sunday of all business in the courts of law, except the manumission of slaves, and all other- business except agricultural labor.
Contracts-Statute Of Frauds-Option To Cancel In Contract Of Employment For More Than One Year As Fulfillment Of Statutory Requirement, Cornelia Groefsema
Contracts-Statute Of Frauds-Option To Cancel In Contract Of Employment For More Than One Year As Fulfillment Of Statutory Requirement, Cornelia Groefsema
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, Hedda Hopper, sued on an oral agreement for her appearance on a weekly radio broadcast, to be sponsored by Andrew Jergen's Company. The contract was for five years, divided into ten twenty-six week periods. Defendant advertising agency reserved an option to cancel the contract by notifying the plaintiff thereof four weeks prior to the end of any twenty-six week period. Plaintiff was to receive $1,250 per week for the first twenty-six weeks with an increase of $250 per week each odd numbered additional period. Defendant repudiated the contract before any performance and plaintiff asks damages amounting to $495,000. A …
The Impact Of The War On Private Contracts, Werner W. Schroeder
The Impact Of The War On Private Contracts, Werner W. Schroeder
Michigan Law Review
The destruction and impairment of contracts caused by governmental agencies because of the necessities of war production have been more far-reaching than is generally realized. A report that one large industrial organization has been prevented from performance of contracts involving more than one hundred and fifty million dollars gives a hint of the extent of these commercial casualties.
Contracts - Intervening Impossibility - Nature Of Excuse Under Casualty Clause, Edmund R. Blaske
Contracts - Intervening Impossibility - Nature Of Excuse Under Casualty Clause, Edmund R. Blaske
Michigan Law Review
The plaintiff sought to compel the performance of a contract by which the defendant obligated himself to make deliveries of logs in specified months. The contract contained the following casualty clause: "And the seller is not liable for delay or nonshipment or for delay or nondelivery if occasioned by . . . strikes, lockouts, or labor disturbances. . . . Buyers agree to accept delayed shipment and/ or delivery when occasioned by any of the aforementioned causes, if so required by the seller, provided the delay does not exceed thirty days." When performance got under way, the longshoremen's strike intervened …
The Notice Due To A Guarantor, Morton C. Campbell
The Notice Due To A Guarantor, Morton C. Campbell
Michigan Law Review
A guaranty is usually an offer contemplating a unilateral contract in that it requires for acceptance an act or series of acts, or abstention from action, on the part of the offeree. The act or acts ordinarily consist in the furnishing of money, goods, services, or the like, by the offeree to the principal in reliance on the guaranty; or in the assumption of suretyship risk by the offeree on behalf of the principal. Abstention from action commonly consists in the offeree's refraining from pressing the principal by suit or otherwise for an overdue debt.
The Effect Of Impossibility Upon Conditions In Wills, Lewis M. Simes
The Effect Of Impossibility Upon Conditions In Wills, Lewis M. Simes
Michigan Law Review
Writers may discourse upon the danger of construing trees to mean raspberry bushes or cabbages, but the fact remains that written instruments are interpreted with the aid of something more than a dictionary. Circumstances existing both at the time the document is executed and at a subsequent period are considered in determining what it means. This statement applies to conditions as well as to other parts of a written instrument. Nor should we be surprised to find that impossibility of performance may modify legal consequences.
Contracts-Liability Of Assignee For Unfullfilled Duties Of His Assigned
Contracts-Liability Of Assignee For Unfullfilled Duties Of His Assigned
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff contracted for the sale of lands with H., title being reserved in the plaintiff. The contract purported to bind the assigns of both parties, and contained an acceleration provision in favor of the plaintiff on default of any payment. Under North Dakota law the parties were substantially in the position of vendor-mortgagee and vendee-mortgagor. H then assigned to the defendant who made payments to the plaintiff, and there was also testimony indicating that in the printed form of the assignment defend ant had promised the assignor to assume the duties under the original contract. Upon default and foreclosure sale …
Development Of The Doctrine Of Impossibility Of Performance, William Herbert Page
Development Of The Doctrine Of Impossibility Of Performance, William Herbert Page
Michigan Law Review
In common with other systems of law, Anglo-American law has grown in part by the use of analogies; and in part, by receptions from other systems of law.