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Articles 31 - 56 of 56
Full-Text Articles in Law
Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman
Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman
Faculty Publications
Liberalism’s concern with human freedom seems related to contractual freedom and thus contract law. There are, however, many strands of liberal thought and which of them best justifies contract is a difficult question. In The Choice Theory of Contracts, Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller offer a vision of contract based on autonomy. Drawing on the work of Joseph Raz, they argue that extending autonomy should be the law’s primary concern, which requires that we extend the range of contractual choices available. While there is much to admire in their work, I argue that autonomy as conceived by Dagan and Heller …
A New Look At Contract Mistake Doctrine And Personal Injury Releases, Grace M. Giesel
A New Look At Contract Mistake Doctrine And Personal Injury Releases, Grace M. Giesel
Grace M. Giesel
One might expect a court to look very skeptically when a party to a personal injury release asks a court to set aside the release. But many courts have reacted atypically when injured parties who have settled their claims have sought to have those releases set aside on the basis of a lack of understanding or knowledge about the injury. Absent facts supporting a claim of fraud or duress, injured parties have turned to the mistake doctrine for relief.
Mitigating Risk, Eradicating Slavery, Ramona Lampley
Mitigating Risk, Eradicating Slavery, Ramona Lampley
Faculty Articles
For U.S. companies with forced labor or child labor in the supply chain, litigation is on the rise. This Article surveys the current litigation landscape involving forced labor in the supply chain. It ultimately concludes that domestic corporations that source from international suppliers should adopt the Model Contract Clauses drafted by the ABA Business Law Section Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in International Supply Contracts ("Working Group"). This Article traces the origins of cases involving supply chain forced labor, beginning with the early employee negligence cases that form the backdrop of existing case law and the cornerstone of …
Interpreting Organizational "Contracts" And The Private Ordering Of Public Company Governance, Megan Wischmeier Shaner
Interpreting Organizational "Contracts" And The Private Ordering Of Public Company Governance, Megan Wischmeier Shaner
William & Mary Law Review
Corporate law is undergoing an explosion of governance by private ordering. With increasing frequency and creativity, the charter and bylaws of public corporations are being used as tools for restructuring key aspects of corporate governance. The current focus of parties, courts, and scholars has been on the facial validity of these efforts. In light of courts’ willingness to uphold corporate governance contracting, legal battles will morph from validity challenges to interpretation disputes. Yet interpretation principles are a topic to which corporate scholars have devoted limited attention. With interpretation poised to take on an influential role in shaping corporate law and …
When Forum Selection Clauses Meet Choice Of Law Clauses, Tanya Monestier
When Forum Selection Clauses Meet Choice Of Law Clauses, Tanya Monestier
Law Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A New Look At Contract Mistake Doctrine And Personal Injury Releases, Grace M. Giesel
A New Look At Contract Mistake Doctrine And Personal Injury Releases, Grace M. Giesel
Brandeis School of Law Faculty Scholarship
One might expect a court to look very skeptically when a party to a personal injury release asks a court to set aside the release. But many courts have reacted atypically when injured parties who have settled their claims have sought to have those releases set aside on the basis of a lack of understanding or knowledge about the injury. Absent facts supporting a claim of fraud or duress, injured parties have turned to the mistake doctrine for relief.
Online Dispute Resolution For Smart Contracts, Amy J. Schmitz, Colin Rule
Online Dispute Resolution For Smart Contracts, Amy J. Schmitz, Colin Rule
Faculty Publications
Smart contracts built in the blockchain are quietly revolutionizing traditional transactions despite their questionable status under current law. At the same time, disputes regarding smart contracts are inevitable, and par-ties will need means for dealing with smart contract issues. This Article tackles this challenge, and proposes that parties turn to online dispute resolution (“ODR”) to efficiently and fairly resolve smart contract disputes. Furthermore, the Article acknowledges the benefits and challenges of current blockchain ODR start-ups, and proposes specific ideas for how designers could address those challenges and incorporate ODR to provide just resolutions that will not stymie efficiencies of smart …
From The Courtroom To The Classroom: How A Litigator Became A Transactional Drafting Professor, Amy Bauer
From The Courtroom To The Classroom: How A Litigator Became A Transactional Drafting Professor, Amy Bauer
Publications
No abstract provided.
Voluntary Obligation And Contract, Aditi Bagchi
Voluntary Obligation And Contract, Aditi Bagchi
Faculty Scholarship
Absent mistake or misrepresentation, most scholars assume that parties who agree to contract do so voluntarily. Scholars tend further to regard that choice as an important exercise in moral agency. Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller are right to question the quality of our choices. Where the fundamental contours of the transaction are legally determined, parties have little opportunity to exercise autonomous choice over the terms on which they deal with others. To the extent that our choices in contract do not reflect our individual moral constitutions — our values, virtues, vices, the set of reasons we reject and the set …
The Role Of International Rules In Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes, Tonya M. Evans
The Role Of International Rules In Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes, Tonya M. Evans
Law Faculty Scholarship
[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain's distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate "superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings …
Freedom, Choice, And Contracts, Hanoch Dagan, Michael A. Heller
Freedom, Choice, And Contracts, Hanoch Dagan, Michael A. Heller
Faculty Scholarship
In “The Choice Theory of Contracts,” we explain contractual freedom and celebrate the plurality of contract types. Here, we reply to critics by refining choice theory and showing how it fits and shapes what we term the “Contract Canon”.
I. Freedom. (1) Charles Fried challenges our account of Kantian autonomy, but his views, we show, largely converge with choice theory. (2) Nathan Oman argues for a commerce-enhancing account of autonomy. We counter that he arbitrarily slights noncommercial spheres central to human interaction. (3) Yitzhak Benbaji suggests that choice theory’s commitment to autonomy is overly perfectionist. Happily, in response to Benbaji, …
Decoding Smart Contracts: Technology, Legitimacy, & Legislative Uniformity, Jared Arcari
Decoding Smart Contracts: Technology, Legitimacy, & Legislative Uniformity, Jared Arcari
Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law
Blockchain technology is increasingly permeating the everyday lives of countless people. Applications of the cutting-edge technology range from secured banking to tracking mortgage titles. A particular blockchain technology, dubbed “smart contracts,” has the potential to revolutionize how individuals and companies securely contract with each other. Smart contracts, however, are not widely employed, mainly because potential users are uncertain of their enforceability as contracts under existing state contract laws. Similar skepticism slowed the acceptance of electronic signatures in the late 1990s, but was resolved ultimately through a model uniform act recognizing electronic signatures’ effectiveness across interstate borders. This Note proposes a …
Law And The Blockchain, Usha Rodrigues
Law And The Blockchain, Usha Rodrigues
Scholarly Works
All contracts are necessarily incomplete. The inefficiencies of bargaining over every contingency, coupled with humans’ innate bounded rationality, mean that contracts cannot anticipate and address every potential eventuality. One role of law is to fill gaps in incomplete contracts with default rules. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that allows the cryptographic recording of transactions and permits “smart” contracts that self-execute automatically if their conditions are met. Because humans code the contracts of the blockchain, gaps in these contracts will arise. Yet in the world of “smart contracting” on the blockchain, there is no place for the law to step …
Hushing Contracts, David A. Hoffman, Erik Lampmann
Hushing Contracts, David A. Hoffman, Erik Lampmann
All Faculty Scholarship
The last few years have brought a renewed appreciation of the costs of nondisclosure agreements that suppress information about sexual wrongdoing. Recently passed bills in a number of states, including New York and California, has attempted to deal with such hush contracts. But such legislation is often incomplete, and many courts and commentators continue to ask if victims of harassment can sign enforceable settlements that conceal serious, potentially metastasizing, social harms. In this Article, we argue that employing the public policy doctrine, courts ought to generally refuse to enforce hush agreements, especially those created by organizations. We restate public policy …
The Private Law Critique Of International Investment Law, Julian Arato
The Private Law Critique Of International Investment Law, Julian Arato
Articles
This Article argues that investment treaties subtly constrain how nations organize their internal systems of private law, including laws of property, contracts, corporations, and intellectual property. Problematically, the treaties do so on a one-size-fits-all basis, disregarding the wide variation in values reflected in these domestic legal institutions. Investor-state dispute settlement exacerbates this tension, further distorting national private law arrangements. This hidden aspect of the system produces inefficiency, unfairness, and distributional inequities that have eluded the regime's critics and apologists alike.
Boilerplate And Party Intent, Gregory Klass
Boilerplate And Party Intent, Gregory Klass
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
It is commonly recognized that parties often do not read or understand contract boilerplate they agree to, and that such parties might not intend all the terms in it. Less often noticed are decisions that favor boilerplate over evidence of the parties’ contrary intent for the very reason that it is boilerplate. This article discusses that phenomenon. It identifies decisions in which courts favor boilerplate terms over other evidence the parties’ intent because it is boilerplate, discusses the rules that explain those outcomes, and examines the reasons behind the rules.
A contractual writing, whether individually negotiated and drafted or boilerplate, …
Dartmouth College V. Woodward And The Structure Of Civil Society, Ernest A. Young
Dartmouth College V. Woodward And The Structure Of Civil Society, Ernest A. Young
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Cutting Pension Rights For Public Workers: Don't Look To The Courts For Help, Ronald H. Rosenberg
Cutting Pension Rights For Public Workers: Don't Look To The Courts For Help, Ronald H. Rosenberg
Faculty Publications
Every day we rely on public employees to provide us with a broad range of services necessary to daily life. These workers include public school teachers, fire and police, emergency medical technicians, park rangers, nurses just to name a few. As public employees, these people work for local and state government and they are compensated by us for their services through the taxes we pay. In general, these are modestly paid workers who also receive pensions when they retire after many years of work. Following the financial crisis of 2008-2009, government retirement trust funds significantly lost value and their long-term …
The Case For American Muslim Arbitration, Rabea Benhalim
The Case For American Muslim Arbitration, Rabea Benhalim
Publications
This Article advocates for the creation of Muslim arbitral tribunals in the United States. These tribunals would better meet the needs of American Muslims, who currently bring their religious disputes to informal forums that lack transparency. Particularly problematic, these existing forums often apply legal precedent developed in majority-Muslim nations, without taking into consideration the changed circumstances of Muslim living as minorities in the United States. These interpretations of Islamic law can have especially negative impacts on women. American Muslim arbitration tribunals offer the potential to correct these inadequacies. Furthermore, a new arbitral system could better meet the needs of sophisticated …
Contracts: Between A Rock And A Hard Place—Sorchaga V. Ride Auto, Llc, Rachel D. Zaiger
Contracts: Between A Rock And A Hard Place—Sorchaga V. Ride Auto, Llc, Rachel D. Zaiger
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Inclusion Riders And Diversity Mandates, Emily Gold Waldman
Inclusion Riders And Diversity Mandates, Emily Gold Waldman
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In this piece, I situate these sorts of diversity requests within the broader context of other customer/client preferences that implicate Title VII. To be sure, the “inclusion riders” are not literal customer/client requests, but rather requests from celebrities who are themselves being hired by the employer for a specific project. Broadly speaking, however, they raise the same legal issue regarding third-party preferences that implicate protected characteristics under Title VII.
As a starting point, the general rule within employment discrimination law is that customer preferences cannot justify discriminatory treatment by employers. That baseline has led courts to rule that employers cannot, …
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of Online Reviews: The Trouble With Trolls And A Role For Contract Law After The Consumer Review Fairness Act, Wayne Barnes
Faculty Scholarship
The advent of the Internet has brought innumerable innovations to our lives. Among the innovations is the meteoric rise in the volume of e-commerce conducted on the Internet. Correspondingly, consumer-posted information about merchants, goods, and services has also begun to be a rich source of information for consumers researching a purchase online. This information takes many forms, but a major category is the narrative review describing the purchase and experience. Such reviews are posted on websites such as Yelp, Amazon and TripAdvisor, on apps, and on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The amount and volume of reviews has …
A Common-Sense Defense Of Janus: Forthcoming Changes In The Public Sector, Maria O'Brien
A Common-Sense Defense Of Janus: Forthcoming Changes In The Public Sector, Maria O'Brien
Faculty Scholarship
Many scholars and others have, for some time now, been calling attention to the alarming growth in post-employment and other benefits for unionized employees in the public sector. 17 A fairly well-understood phenomenon is thought to explain the inability of state and local governments to resist outsized demands from their public unions. As 18 Is and others 19 have argued, the central problem with public sector unions is that they find it easy to capture their employers (taxpayers) in ways that private sector unions cannot. The role played by often eager and feckless elected officials in this process has also …
Contracts Mattered As Much As Copyrights, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
Contracts Mattered As Much As Copyrights, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
Articles
Scholars have begun to appreciate the fundamental role that contracts played in the development of copyrights. Contracts gave copyrights vitalilty. This article explores the network of book publishing contracts that formed the legal infrastructure for a pre-modern “internet” at the dawn of copyright law in Great Britain in the eighteenth century. Drawing on insights from archival research, the article shows how this network of copyright contracts advanced an important goal of copyright: the spread of ideas and information throughout all parts of society. Appreciating the historical significance of copyright contracts provides valuable context for modern debates about copyright policy. Indeed, …
Inefficiency Of Specific Performance As A Contractual Remedy In Chinese Courts: An Empirical And Normative Analysis, Lei Chen, Larry A. Dimatteo
Inefficiency Of Specific Performance As A Contractual Remedy In Chinese Courts: An Empirical And Normative Analysis, Lei Chen, Larry A. Dimatteo
UF Law Faculty Publications
This article investigates the values and latent policies, which have shaped the development of Chinese law in the area of the availability of specific performance (SP) as a contractual remedy. The National People’s Congress (Legislature) and Supreme People’s Court in China have addressed the remedial structure of Chinese contract law, namely, the availability of the remedy of SP as opposed to the awarding of damages-only. The law is clear that the remedies of SP and damages are ordinary remedies that a claimant is free to choose between. The question that is confronted in this article is whether in practice the …
Contracts Are Like Snowflakes, David Spratt
Contracts Are Like Snowflakes, David Spratt
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
No abstract provided.