Contracts Commons^™

Nonparty Interests In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, David A. Hoffman, Cathy Hwang

All Faculty Scholarship

Contract law has one overarching goal: to advance the legitimate interests of the contracting parties. For the most part, scholars, judges, and parties embrace this party primacy norm, recognizing only a few exceptions, such as mandatory rules that bar enforcement of agreements that harm others. This Article describes a distinct species of previously unnoticed contract law rules that advance nonparty interests, which it calls “nonparty defaults."

In doing so, this Article makes three contributions to the contract law literature. First, it identifies nonparty defaults as a judicial technique. It shows how courts deviate from the party primary norm with surprising …

The Social Cost Of Contract, David A. Hoffman, Cathy Hwang

All Faculty Scholarship

When private parties perform contracts, the public bears some of the costs. But what happens when society confronts unexpected contractual risks? During the COVID-19 pandemic, completing particular contracts—such as following through with weddings, conferences, and other large gatherings—will greatly increase the risk of rapidly spreading disease. A close reading of past cases illustrates that when social hazards sharply increase after formation, courts have sometimes rejected, reformed, and reinterpreted contracts so that parties who breach to reduce external harms are not left holding the bag.

This Essay builds on that observation in making two contributions. Theoretically, it characterizes contracts as bargains …

Contracts And Covid-19, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

No abstract provided.

Copyright As Contract, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Copyright is essentially a contract between the author and the public with the government acting as the agent of the public. The consideration received by authors is defined by duration and breadth of exclusivity. The consideration for the public is the creation of a "work" that will be available on a limited basis for the life of the author plus 70 years and then available without limit after that. If there were no transaction costs at all, it would be possible to "pay" authors different amounts of exclusivity. Perhaps a greeting card would get one holiday season of exclusivity, if …

Privity's Shadow: Exculpatory Terms In Extended Forms Of Private Ordering, Mark P. Gergen

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Third Party Non-Signatory's Ability To Compel International Commercial Arbitration: Doing Justice Without Destroying Consent , James M. Hosking

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article analyzes the legal theories and other mechanisms employed in international commercial arbitration to achieve a workable compromise among the above-cited propositions. In so doing it touches on larger, more complex questions like the position of third parties in contract law, the jurisdictional foundations of arbitration, and the role of choice-of-law issues in determining the validity of the arbitration agreement. However important these broader concerns may be, they should not undermine the importance of the issue in its own right.

Contract Law – The Remedies: Towards Codification Of The Civil Law, Dr. Yehuda Adar, Prof. Gabriela Shalev

Yehuda Adar Dr.

-This Book is in Hebrew-

Why Unify Contract And Tort Remedies? A Reply To Professor Dagan, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

-This Article is in Hebrew-

The remedies section in the Israeli draft civil code attempts to create a unified law of remedies for the breach of any civil obligation, including originating in tort law and contract law. In his article, "The Risks of Codification: On Over-Coherence and Multiplicity of Remedies", Professor Dagan forcefully criticizes this attempt. The present article demonstrates that the two main criticisms raised by Dagan - against the unification of remedies and against the attempt to fortify the remedial response to breach of civil obligations - are unconvincing, from both a theoretical and a pragmatic point of …

Whiten V. Pilot Ins. Co.: The Unofficial Death Of The Independent Wrong Requirement And Official Birth Of Punitive Damages In Contract, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

Three years have passed since the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its controversial decision in Whiten v. Pilot Insurance Co. In that case, the Court affirmed an almost unprecedented punitive damage award by a jury of one million dollars against an insurance company. More importantly, the Whiten decision appears to be the first attempt by the Supreme Court to construct a comprehensive set of rules and principles in light of which punitive damages cases should be decided in the future. While the extraordinary monetary sanction upheld by the Court has attracted much attention in legal and commercial circles, it seems …

The Punitive Award As A Sanction In Contract, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

My Ph.D. dissertation -This Article is in Hebrew-

Products Liability In Pennsylvania, William E. Benner, Thomas C. Riley, Joseph A. Torregrossa

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.