Law Commons^™

Contract, Status And The Bonds Of Welfare, Kenneth Veitch

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This article explores the relationship between contract and status in the context of contemporary social policy. Using examples of contract in the areas of unemployment policy (what is here called the workfare contract) and what has become known as the financialisation of the welfare state (Social Impact Bonds), the article identifies the types of bonds and obligations involved in those contracts and their sources. Drawing critically on Émile Durkheim and Max Weber’s work on the history and pre-history of contract, it is argued that issues of status – the status of the unemployed and capital, amongst others – lie at …

Convergence By Design: Who Contracts And The Plural Purposes Of Contract Law, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A theory is robustly pluralist if it maintains that law is justified by multiple independent nonordered principles. Some have argued that robustly pluralist theories are deficient because they can provide no practical guidance when those principles conflict. The objection is misplaced when applied to pluralist theories of contract law.

This article demonstrates the possibility of a robustly pluralist and practically relevant theory of contract law by modeling a multipurpose law of contract. Five simple models are constructed to illustrate several purposes a contract law might serve, depending on preferences of the populace (self-interested utility maximizers, a preference for sharing, a …

Formalism In Contract Exposition, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Formalism in contract law has had many defenders and many critics. What lawmakers need, however, is an account of when formalist approaches work and when they do not. This article addresses that need by providing general theory of the rules of contract interpretation and construction and identifying several ways those rules can be more or less formalist. The theory draws from legal philosophy, the philosophy of language, economic contracts scholarship, and caselaw.

The result is a distinction between two forms of formalism in contract law. Formalities effect legal change by virtue of their form alone, thereby obviating interpretation. Examples from …

Pelaksanaan Perjanjian Akibat Terjadinya Wanprestasi Karena Pandemi Covid-19: Studi Perbandingan Di Indonesia Dan Malaysia, Nadya Aurelia Salsabila

Lex Patrimonium

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on various aspects of people’s lives, one of which is the existence of contracts whose implementation has been disrupted because there are some of parties who cannot fulfill their achievements or contractual obligations by postulating the Covid-19 pandemic as a category of force majeure. This research discusses the implementation of contracts due to defaults due to the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia and Malaysia. The method used is normative juridical by examining laws and regulations and court decisions in the two countries which are the focus of comparison in this research. The conclusion …

Who Thinks Treaties Are Like Contracts? Not John Marshall, David P. Stewart, Diana A. A. Reisman

American University International Law Review

Courts in the United States are fond of analogizing treaties to contracts. The U.S. Supreme Court has done so on numerous occasions, as have nearly all federal circuit courts. Indeed, the treaty-as-contract trope has permeated U.S. legal discourse since at least the early 1800s when Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Foster v. Neilson that “[a] treaty is in its nature a contract between two nations, not a legislative act.”

How To Interpret A Vending Machine: Smart Contracts And Contract Law, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A smart contract is software designed to do the job of a legal contract: ensuring the performance of parties who might not otherwise trust one another to do so. By running a smart contract on blockchain, users can lock themselves into future performances without relying on a third-party enforcer or platform host, thereby realizing a “fully trustless” exchange. This new technology has wide range of potential applications, and contracts are likely to become an increasingly common part of the economy.

Some have argued that smart contracts represent a new type of legal contract, analogizing the software’s code to a contractual …