Contracts Commons^™

Rolling Contracts, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

"Rolling contracts" are one method of presenting standard forms to contracting parties, including consumers, who are the focus of this paper. In a rolling contract, a purchaser orders goods and pays for them before seeing most of the terms, which come later in or on the packaging of the goods. The purchaser can return the goods for a limited time period.

This paper addresses the controversy over whether the new terms are part of the contract and enforceable against the purchaser. Although most analysts focus on when the contract is formed, this paper urges that this analysis yields little fruit. …

Labor And Employment Law, Thomas M. Winn Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Critical Resource Theory Of Fiduciary Duty, D. Gordon Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This Article proposes a new theory to unify the law of fiduciary duty. The prevailing view holds that fiduciary law is atomistic, arising for varied reasons in established categories of cases (such as trustee-beneficiary and director-shareholder) and ad hoc in relationships where one person trusts another and becomes vulnerable to harm as a result. By contrast, the critical resource theory of fiduciary duty holds that every relationship properly designated as fiduciary conforms to the following pattern: one party (the fiduciary) acts on behalf of another party (the beneficiary) while exercising discretion with respect to a critical resource belonging to the …

4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 4th Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute held by UK/CLE in November 2002.

Rehnquist's Vietnam: Constitutional Separatism And The Stealth Advance Of Martial Law, Diane H. Mazur

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence And Politics Of Forum-Selection Clauses, Erin O'Hara O'Connor

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Nevada's Employee Inventions Statute: Novel, Nonobvious, And Patently Wrong, Mary Lafrance

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tracing Principles In Revised Article 9 § 9-315(B)(2): A Matter Of Careless Drafting, Or An Invitation To Creative Lawyering?, William Stoddard

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Nevada's Failure To Secure Its Future: An Analysis Of The Omission Of U.C.C. § 9-318(A) And Its Effect On Asset Securitization, Cari Ehrlich Waters

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Duty To Negotiate In Good Faith: Precontractual Liability And Preliminary Agreement, Aarti Arunachalam

LLM Theses and Essays

Good faith is one concept that defies a clear definition and courts have struggled to understand and establish its scope and ambit. This paper just seeks to analyze the scope of the duty of good faith as understood at the stage when actually no contract has been formed. Despite considerable support for the existence of a duty of good faith, courts in US have not been very receptive in recognizing the duty of good faith especially in the precontractual stage, especially when parties enter into preliminary agreement. Courts have relied on the a number of factors to determine the enforceability …

The Protection Of Women And Children In Islamic Law And International Humanitarian Law: A Critique Of John Kelsay”, Hamdard Islamicus, Xxv (3) (July-September 2002), Pp. 69-82, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

Islam introduced the most humane rules in warfare before other religions or faiths could do it. Most authors acknowledge this fact, however, John Kelsay, Fredrick Donner, and few others doubt Islam's enormous contribution to bring in humanity in warfare. These authors assume that Islam has learned humanitarian principles, such as the principle of distinction, from the pre-Islamic practices; that Imam Al-Shafi'i allowed the killing of all women whether combatant or non-combatant; that even the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) allowed the killing of women and children; and that women and children can be enslaved. This work completely rebuts all …

Contract Lore, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The article investigates why contracts lawyers, judges, and theorists ("contracts people") routinely and confidently invoke "traditional beliefs" about contract law that are not even close to true. For example, contracts people often declare that the purpose of expectancy damages is to put the injured party in as good a position as if the contract had been performed. But expectancy damages virtually never do this. Contracts people also recite that the reasons for breach, whether willful, negligent or unavoidable, do not matter, and that formation and interpretation issues focus on the parties' intentions. Neither of these assertions is close to true …

Comment: More In Defense Of U.C.C. Methodology, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Contract Law, Robin Jean Davis, Louis J. Palmer Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Broken-Field Running Perl V. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., John F. Dobbyn

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Crisci V. Security Insurance Co.: The Dawn Of The Modern Era Of Insurance: Bad Faith And Emotional Distress Damages, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Standard-Form Contracting In The Electronic Age, Robert A. Hillman, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The development of the Internet as a medium for consumer transactions creates a new question for contract law. In this Article, Professors Robert Hillman and Jeffrey Rachlinski address whether the risks imposed on consumers by Internet boilerplate requires a new lens through which courts should view these types of contracts. Their analysis of boilerplate in paper and Internet contracts examines the social, cognitive, and rational factors that affect consumers' comprehension of boilerplate and compares business strategies in presenting it. The authors conclude that the influence of these factors in Internet transactions is similar to that in proper transactions. Although the …

An Efficiency Analysis Of Contracts For The Provision Of Telephone Services To Prisons, Justin Carver

Federal Communications Law Journal

As the numbers of prisons and prisoners continue to increase, so does the market for prison services. One of the more lucrative segments of this industry is the telephone market. To the extent that the services are provided to the prisoners, the relationship resembles a third party beneficiary contract, but due to the perverse financial incentives and the political climate surrounding prisons and prisoners, neither the state nor the private entity acts in the best interests of the consumers in particular or of society in general. This Article will analyze the efficiency of these contracts, introduce alternate arrangements, and compare …

A Tale Of Three Markets: The Law And Economics Of Predatory Lending

Patricia A. McCoy

Predatory lending - the practice of making exploitative high-cost loans to naive borrowers - has spurred policy-makers, activists, lenders and scholars to debate whether intervention is warranted and, if so, what type of intervention is appropriate. The solution requires understanding the incentives in the home mortgage market that have fueled predatory lending. Recent changes in the credit market have created new possibilities for lenders to profit by exploiting information asymmetries to the detriment of unsophisticated borrowers. As a result, a new, predatory lending market has emerged alongside the legitimate prime and subprime home mortgage markets. Neither market forces nor existing …

Trade Secrets, Property, And Social Relations, Steven Wilf

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Knowledge At Work: Disputes Over The Ownership Of Human Capital In The Changing Workplace, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Letters Of Comfort Revisited, Pey Woan Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since the English Court of Appeal’s decision in Kleinwort Benson Ltd v. Malaysia Mining Corp. Bhd, it would be understandable if the business community placed little or no reliance on letters of comfort save in the exceptional case where the terms evince an undeniably clear intention to create binding obligations. It might therefore seem somewhat surprising that an experienced and sophisticated institution should commence proceedings in the High Court of Singapore on the premise of a letter of awareness in Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd v. Jurong Engineering Ltd. This could plausibly be explained as the bank’s last-ditch attempt …

Leveling The Playing Field: Applying The Doctrines Of Unconscionability And Condition Precedent To Effectuate Student-Athlete Intent Under The National Letter Of Intent, Michael J. Riella

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Options, Keith Evans

Dalhousie Law Journal

Little attention is devoted to the law of options in major Canadian texts on contract law or in periodical literature. One might, therefore, assume that the law in this area is well settled and that few major cases come before the courts. However, a review of appellate decisions in Canada indicates significant judicial interest in the topic which would challenge those assumptions. In fact, appellate courts in various common law jurisdictions continue to struggle with many doctrinal issues related to this specialized type of contract. This article provides a comprehensive review of the law of options in Canada, and identifies …

Venture Capital On The Downside: Preferred Stock And Corporate Control, William W. Bratton

Michigan Law Review

When stock indices drop precipitously, when the startup companies fizzle out, and when it stops raining money on places like Wall Street and Silicon Valley, attention turns to downside contracting. Law and business lawyers, sitting in the back seat as mere facilitators on the upside, move up to the front and sometimes even take the wheel. The job is the same on both the upside and downside: to maximize the value of going concern assets. But what comes easily on the upside can be dirty work on the down, where assets need to be separated from dysfunctional teams of business …

Insurer Or Policyholder Control Of The Defense And The Duty To Fund Settlements, James M. Fischer

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taking Contracts Private: The Quiet Revolution In Contract Law, Charles L. Knapp

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Employee Representation In The Boundaryless Workplace, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of Promissory Estoppel Or Is Promissory Estoppel Really As Unsuccessful As Scholars Say It Is: A New Look At The Data, Juliet P. Kostritsky

Faculty Publications

This article makes important contributions to the field of empirical promissory estoppel scholarship. First it challenges recent empirical scholarship (by Professors Robert Hillman and Sidney De Long in the 1998 and 1997 Columbia and Wisconsin law reviews). Their scholarship had challenged the view of the vast majority of American Contracts scholarship by proclaiming promissory estoppel to be an unimportant doctrine based on low win rates of tried cases. My article challenges this new orthodoxy based on a comprehensive five year survey of cases. It concludes that it is too soon to announce the death of promissory estoppel and that promissory …

The Purge Of Mortgage In Japanese Civil Law, Wei Zhang

Wei Zhang

The purge of mortgage is believed to be one of the few French remnants in the otherwise largely German style Japanese Civil Code. Since the breakdown of Japanese asset price bubble in early 1990s, it has been blamed as one major obstacle to clearing up nonperforming loans held by Japanese banks, and a central target subject to abolishment. In this paper, I analyzed the structural problems existing in the Japanese purge system and also probed the history and social background behind the debates about its abolishment. I proposed that, instead of total abolition, a restructured purge system, in particular getting …