Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Modular Bankruptcy: Toward A Consumer Scheme Of Arrangement, John A. E. Pottow

Law & Economics Working Papers

The world of international bankruptcy has seen increasing use of the versatile scheme of arrangement, a form of corporate reorganization available under English law. A key feature of the scheme is its modularity, whereby a debtor can restructure only a single class of debt, such as bond indentures, without affecting other debt, such as trade. This is the opposite of chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s comprehensive reckoning of all financial stakeholders. This article considers a novel idea: could the scheme be transplanted into the consumer realm? It argues that it could and should. Substantial benefits of more individually …

A Presumptively Better Approach To Arbitrability, John A. E. Pottow, Jacob Brege, Tara J. Hawley

Articles

One of the most complex problems in the arbitration field is the question of who decides disputes over the scope of an arbitrator's purported authority. Courts in Canada and the United States have taken different approaches to this fundamental question of "arbitrability" that necessarily arises when one party disputes the contractual validity of the underlying "container" contract carrying the arbitration clause. If arbitration is a creature of contract, and contract is a product of consensual agreement, then any dispute that impugns the underlying consent of the parties to the container contract implicates the arbitration agreement itself (i.e., no contract, no …

Contractualism In The Law Of Treaties, Omar M. Dajani

Michigan Journal of International Law

When Henry Sumner Maine famously observed that "the movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract," he was invoking contract not as a device for binding parties to their commitments but, rather, as a metaphor for freedom. That metaphor lies at the heart of what legal scholars have come to call contractualism (or, sometimes, contractarianism)-the idea that people should be free to decide with whom, for what, and on which terms they enter agreements and that the law should minimize the constraints it places on these decisions. It is a proposition rooted in the …

The Fault Principle As The Chameleon Of Contract Law: A Market Function Approach, Stefan Grundmann

Michigan Law Review

This Article begins with a comparative law survey showing that all legal systems do not opt exclusively for fault liability or strict liability in contract law, but often adopt a more nuanced approach. This approach includes intermediate solutions such as reversing the burden of proof, using a market ("objective") standard of care, distinguishing between different types of contracts, and providing a "second chance" to breaching parties. Taking this starting point seriously and arguing that it is highly unlikely that all legal systems err, this Article argues that the core question is how and when each liability regime should prevail or …

Partially Odious Debts?, Omri Ben-Shahar, Mitu Gulati

Articles

The despotic ruler of a poor nation borrows extensively from foreign creditors. He spends some of those funds on building statues of himself, others on buying arms for his brutal secret police, and he places the remainder in his personal bank accounts in Switzerland. The longer the despot stays in power, the poorer the nation becomes. Although the secret police are able to keep prodemocracy protests subdued by force for many years, eventually there is a popular revolt. The despot flees the scene with a few billion dollars of his illgotten gains. The populist regime that replaces the despot now …

Warranties Against Infringement In The Sale Of Goods: A Comparison Of U.C.C. § 2-312(3) And Article 42 Of The U.N. Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods, Joseph J. Schwerha Iv

Michigan Journal of International Law

Gone are the days of simple sales contracts. Today's corporate lawyers must have not only a substantial understanding of basic commercial law, but also of the related intellectual property law. Because of the shrinking global economy, such knowledge must rise to an international level.

Caught Between Rocks And Hard Places: The Plight Of Reinsurance Intermediaries Under U.S. And English Law, Stephen W. Schwab, Peter G. Gallanis, David E. Mendelsohn, Bradley V. Ritter

Michigan Journal of International Law

Accordingly, Part I of this article provides a review of the role intermediaries have played in the recent spate of insurance company insolvencies and an overview of intermediary rights and duties. Part II then progresses to a discussion of English intermediary law, analyzing how the general English rules apply to intermediaries when a cedent or reinsurer becomes insolvent. Part III addresses the same issues under U.S. law, tracing the most recent statutory developments from their cause and considering their effect on reinsurance transactions. This article concludes with a discussion of how English and U.S. law interact in reinsurance transactions, pointing …

Renegotiating Transnational Investment Agreements: Lessons For Develping Countries From The Ghana-Valco Experience, Paul Kuruk

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article describes the use of the renegotiation process to resolve problems that arise in the relations between participants in transnational investment. It draws conclusions from the successful renegotiation of an agreement executed in 1962 under which the Ghanaian government guaranteed bauxite and hydroelectric power supplies to support the smelting operations of the Volta Aluminium Company, Limited (Valco) in return for revenues from taxes and from payments for electricity, water, and use of the country's port facilities. The agreement between Ghana and Valco was entered into as part of the Volta River Project (VRP). This project was an investment scheme …

Use And Non-Use Of Contract Law In Japan, Whitmore Gray

Articles

This article first defines the scope of enquiry, then surveys some of the existing literature, and finally, presents the results of my preliminary survey interviews and questionnaire. It is my hope that it will serve as a basis form discussion leading to better definition of the problems for research in this area, and will suggest ways to proceed to gather the information necessary for more sophisticated exposition and commentary.

Enforcement Of A Promise In Modern American Law (Gendai Amerikaho Ni Okeru Yakusoku No Kyosei), Whitmore Gray

Articles

A series of seminar lectures given by Whitmore Gray in Tokyo, Japan during October 1968. Six articles were subsequently published in “Kaigai Shojihomu” (The International Business Law Bulletin) between July 1969 and May 1970.

The sixth and final installment describes the history of contractual enforcement in the U.S. and highlights changes introduced through adoption of the UCC.

Remedies For Breach Under The Uniform Commercial Code (Ucc Ni Okeru Keiyaku Furiko Ni Taisuru Kyusai), Whitmore Gray

Articles

A series of seminar lectures given by Whitmore Gray in Tokyo, Japan during October 1968. Six articles were subsequently published in “Kaigai Shojihomu” (The International Business Law Bulletin) between July 1969 and May 1970. The fifth installment discusses the difficulty of remedies and various methods of enforcement.

Contract Interpretation Under The Uniform Commercial Code (Ucc Ni Okeru Keiyaku No Kaishaku), Whitmore Gray

Articles

A series of seminar lectures given by Whitmore Gray in Tokyo, Japan during October 1968. Six articles were subsequently published in “Kaigai Shojihomu” (The International Business Law Bulletin) between July 1969 and May 1970.

The fourth installment discusses further considerations and principles that impact contract interpretation.

Contract Interpretation And The Uniform Commercial Code (Ucc Ni Okeru Keiyaku No Kaishaku), Whitmore Gray

Articles

A series of seminar lectures given by Whitmore Gray in Tokyo, Japan during October 1968. Six articles were subsequently published in “Kaigai Shojihomu” (The International Business Law Bulletin) between July 1969 and May 1970. The third installment introduces the basic principles of contract interpretation.

Contract Formation Under The Uniform Commercial Code (Ucc Ni Okeru Keiyaku No Seiritsu), Whitmore Gray

Articles

A series of seminar lectures given by Whitmore Gray in Tokyo, Japan during October 1968. Six articles were subsequently published in “Kaigai Shojihomu” (The International Business Law Bulletin) between July 1969 and May 1970.

The second installment discusses issues related to requirements compelling completion of a contract or pushing the issue to court.

Review Of The Validity Of Sales Contracts: A Comparative Study, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

These 2 volumes are a slightly revised version of the substantive reports prepared by the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg (Director: Professor Konrad Zweigert) for the Rome Institute for the Unification of Private Law. They were designed to serve as a basis for the elaboration and discussion of a new uniform law on this subject matter, which would supplement the 1964 Hague conventions on a Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods and Uniform Law on the Formation of Contract for the International Sale of Goods.

The Labor Court Idea, R. W. Fleming

Michigan Law Review

When the War Labor Board first began to exert pressure on companies and unions to adopt grievance arbitration clauses during World War II, there was a considerable hesitance on both sides. Both groups worried that while third party decision making might momentarily improve productive efficiency, it would do so at the price of a long-run loss in institutional integrity and autonomy, and peace at any price held little fascination for either side. Nevertheless, grievance arbitration was accepted and gradually became the normal mechanism for resolving contractual disputes in the United States.

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study, Second Edition. Volume Three. Special Obligations: Modification And Discharge Of Obligations, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The third volume of Ernst Rabel's comparative treatise on the conflict of laws was originally published in 1950. With the continued support ofThe University of Michigan Law School and the cooperation of the Max-Planck-Institut für auslaändisches und internationals Privatrecht in Hamburg, this second edition of Volume III has been prepared. Plans for the revision of Volumes I and II were made before the death of the author on September 7, 1955, and the work was carried to completion by Dr. Ulrich Drobnig of the staff of the Institut in Hamburg. We were fortunate in obtaining the services of another well-qualified …

Lawson: A Common Lawyer Looks At The Civil Law, F. S. C. Northrop

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A Common Lawyer Looks at the Civil Law. By F. H. Lawson.

Lectures On The Conflict Of Laws And International Contracts, University Of Michigan Law School

Summer Institute on International and Comparative Law

The lectures contained in this volume were delivered at Ann Arbor in the course of the sessions of the Summer Institute on International and Comparative Law under the auspices of the University of Michigan Law School, August 5 to 21, 1949. As a part of the institute program that has been inaugurated with the encouraging support not merely of the Faculty of the Law School but also of many interested members of the bar - a program designed to supplement the ordinary course of legal studies through the exploration of "frontiers of the law" in lectures and discussions delivered or …

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume Three. Special Obligations: Modification And Discharge Of Obligations, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Among the multitude of conflicts principles that, according to various claims, should determine the law applicable to all contracts, only two have resisted the test of critical analysis. These, indeed, form an adequate groundwork. First, the freedom of parties to choose the law applicable to their contract must be recognized as a general rule without petty restraint. Second, in the absence of such agreement, a contract should be governed by the law most closely connected with its characteristic feature.

The first proposition is essential to the second. To deny party autonomy means rigid conflicts rules created by some superior authority. …

Contracts-Duty To Mitigate Damages Upon Anticipatory Breach Of Forward Contract Of Sale, William F. Snyder

Michigan Law Review

The theory of our law in regard to damages for breach of contract has been to give the innocent party as nearly as possible what he would have received had the contract been performed. To this end, our courts have worked out a rough formula which has been described by Professor Grismore as follows:

" ... The promisee is, in general, entitled to recover the economic equivalent of the performance promised, at the time and place fixed in the contract, plus any losses incurred or gains prevented through not receiving it, less any savings that have resulted to the promisee …

Quasi-Contracts-Concept Of Benefit, George A. Rinker S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

One of the basic elements of quasi-contract, and probably the most complex, is the concept of benefit. Its origin lies in the early actions to recover for unjust enrichment, and the early characteristics, for the most part, have persisted to the present time. While "enrichment" is no longer an accurate synonym for benefit, as it once was, the qualitative "unjust" still retains its vigor. Thus, "unjustified benefit" is a more accurate name for the concept. As used in quasi-contract and related fields of law, the concept is composed of several factors, no one of which can be considered as invariable. …

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume Two. Foreign Corporations: Torts: Contracts In General, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Full application of comparative methods to the law of conflicts requires a working plan of some magnitude. We ought to take stock of the conflicts rules existing in the different countries of the world, state their similarities or dissimilarities, and investigate their purposes and effects. The solutions thus ascertained should moreover be subjected to an estimation of their usefulness, by the standards appropriate to their natural objective. Conflicts rules have to place private life and business relations upon the legal background suitable to satisfactory intercourse among states and nations. They are valuable to the extent that their practical functioning, rather …

Optional Terms (Jus Dispositivum) And Required Terms (Jus Cogens) In The Law Of Contracts, Arthur Lenhoff

Michigan Law Review

In speaking of statutory law in the common law courts, lawyers have ascribed to it a limiting office, namely, that of interference with the parties' freedom to act and transact at their pleasure. A closer consideration shows them that the function of statutory law varies not only with the legal system to which it belongs, but also with the structural changes within a single legal system.

Waiver Of Protest: A Comparative Study, Raúl Olivera Y Borges

Michigan Law Review

Parallel to the study of protest, it is pertinent to consider the nature and legal effects of exempting clauses which, while not essential, may be found in bills of exchange. Waiver of protest appears to have been introduced by the practice in France during the first third of the nineteenth century. It is generally used to moderate the consequences of non-payment, by a drawer who lacks confidence in the solvency of the drawee, or who fears that he may not be able to provide the necessary funds before maturity. The drawer can thus spare the susceptibilities of a drawee who …

Capacity Under The Negotiable Instruments Laws Of The Americas: A Comparative Study, Luis M. Ramirez B.

Michigan Law Review

Closely related to the legal rules that regulate the different aspects and effects of endorsement is the question of capacity to endorse bills of exchange. This forms part of negotiatory capacity in general, which, in a broad sense, may be defined as the faculty of a person to acquire rights and to assume obligations on negotiable instruments.

Constitutional Law - Force And Effect Of Clauses Providing For Payment Of Private Indebtedness In Gold

Michigan Law Review

Certain Belgium company bonds were issued providing for payment of interest "in sterling in gold coin of the United Kingdom of or equal to the weight and fineness existing on September 1, 1928." After England had left the gold: standard the issuing company sought to make interest payments in depreciated pounds. Plaintiff bondholder sought to enforce payment of sufficient depreciated currency to enable him to purchase on the day of payment gold in the same quantity as he would have received had payment been due September 1, 1928. The English House of Lords held for plaintiff, reversing the decision of …

Book Reviews, Burke Shartel, Grover C. Grismore, S C. Ho, S M. Ho, Evans Holbrook, Henry M. Bates

Michigan Law Review

History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851. By Mary Floyd Williams. University of California Publications in History, Volume XII. "Berkeley: The University of California Press. 192I. Pp. xii, 543.

Implied Condition Involving Impossibility Of Performance, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Early in 1914 the defendants contracted to sell to the plaintiffs a quantity of Finland birch timber. The practice was to send the timber direct by sea from Finnish ports. Before any timber was delivered the war broke out and the presence of German warships in the Baltic made the direct shipment by water impossible. The contract contained no war, force majeure or suspension provision. Held, that the contract was not dissolved, and the defendants were liable for damages for non-delivery of the timber. Blackburn Robbin Co., Lim. v. Allen & Sons, Lim. (1918) 87 L. J. K. B. 1085. …

Forms Of Anglo Saxon Contracts And Their Sanctions, Robert L. Henry Jr

Michigan Law Review

The several forms of contract will be taken up in the following order: I. the Surety Contract, including (a) the creditor's rights against the debtor, (b) the creditor's rights to sue the surety, and (c) the surety's right of reimbursement; 2. the Warranty Contracts, including (a) warranty of title, and (b) warranty of quality; 3. the Contract of Court Record; 4. the Coitract of Plighted Faith; 5. the Pledge Contract; 6. the' "Delivery-Promise"; 7. the Written Contract; and 8. the "Earnest" Contract.