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Full-Text Articles in Law

Brief Of Restitution And Remedies Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent: Spokeo V. Robins, Doug Rendleman, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen Nov 2015

Brief Of Restitution And Remedies Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent: Spokeo V. Robins, Doug Rendleman, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen

Mark P. Gergen

Both consumer protection and restitution may be casualties in a collision with the constitutional law of standing. Spokeo collects information from the internet and publishes it; however, Spokeo neither verifies the facts nor confirms which same-named person it refers to. Robins alleges that Spokeo violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by disseminating false information about him. He seeks class certification and up to $1,000 in statutory minimum damages instead of compensatory damages. Spokeo argues that Robins lacks standing because he suffered no “injury in fact,” no “concrete harm.” Statutory minimum recoveries for defendants’ violations of plaintiffs’ individual rights without proof …


Theory Of Self-Help Remedies In Contract, A, Mark P. Gergen Nov 2015

Theory Of Self-Help Remedies In Contract, A, Mark P. Gergen

Mark P. Gergen

The article discusses the positive and normative aspects of self-help remedies in contracts. Self-remedies are defined as actions that a party may take in a bid to resolve a breach of contract without the need to go to court. It is said that the power to withhold performance amid a breach tends to be used with the power to refuse non-conforming performance. The author believes that the law of self-help allows a great deal of waste in avoiding the risk of short-changing contract rights, leading to the undermining of the theory of efficient breach.


Tortious Interference: How It Is Engulfing Commercial Law, Why This Is Not Entirely Bad, And A Prudential Response, Mark P. Gergen Nov 2015

Tortious Interference: How It Is Engulfing Commercial Law, Why This Is Not Entirely Bad, And A Prudential Response, Mark P. Gergen

Mark P. Gergen

No abstract provided.


Techniques To Teach Substance And Skill In Contract Drafting: In-Office Meetings And Analytical Memos, Lyman P. Q. Johnson Sep 2015

Techniques To Teach Substance And Skill In Contract Drafting: In-Office Meetings And Analytical Memos, Lyman P. Q. Johnson

Lyman P. Q. Johnson

This short article is based on a talk at Emory Law School on Transactional Lawyering. One overall pedagogical aim of a transactional course (or any business contract drafting course) is to link skills training with insistence on in-depth substantive learning about law and business. In this way, skills training – although acknowledged to be practical – also can be recognized as intellectually demanding, a point not always appreciated by proponents of more traditional law teaching. Two techniques for making the connection – in-office meetings and detailed “companion” analytical memos – are described.


Remedies: A Guide For The Perplexed, Doug Rendleman Sep 2015

Remedies: A Guide For The Perplexed, Doug Rendleman

Doug Rendleman

Remedies is one of a law student’s most practical courses. Remedies students and their professors learn to work with their eyes on the question at the end of litigation: what can the court do for the successful plaintiff? Remedies develops students’ professional identities and broadens their professional horizons by reorganizing their analysis of procedure, torts, contracts, and property around choosing and measuring relief - compensatory damages, punitive damages, an injunction, specific performance, disgorgement, and restitution. This article discusses the law-school course in Remedies - the content of the Remedies course, the Remedies classroom experience, and Remedies outside the classroom through …


Brief Of Restitution And Remedies Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent: Spokeo V. Robins, Doug Rendleman, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen Sep 2015

Brief Of Restitution And Remedies Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent: Spokeo V. Robins, Doug Rendleman, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen

Doug Rendleman

Both consumer protection and restitution may be casualties in a collision with the constitutional law of standing. Spokeo collects information from the internet and publishes it; however, Spokeo neither verifies the facts nor confirms which same-named person it refers to. Robins alleges that Spokeo violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by disseminating false information about him. He seeks class certification and up to $1,000 in statutory minimum damages instead of compensatory damages. Spokeo argues that Robins lacks standing because he suffered no “injury in fact,” no “concrete harm.” Statutory minimum recoveries for defendants’ violations of plaintiffs’ individual rights without proof …


Tenure Rights In Contractual And Constitutional Context, Ronald C. Brown Aug 2015

Tenure Rights In Contractual And Constitutional Context, Ronald C. Brown

Ronald Brown

No abstract provided.


Using Occam’S Razor To Solve International Attorney-Client Privilege Choice Of Law Issues: An Old Solution To A New Problem, Nathan M. Crystal, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal Jul 2015

Using Occam’S Razor To Solve International Attorney-Client Privilege Choice Of Law Issues: An Old Solution To A New Problem, Nathan M. Crystal, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal

Nathan M. Crystal

The practice of law is increasingly becoming “delocalized.” Globalization and the use of technology are two important factors in this fundamental change in practice. Delocalization is affecting almost all areas of practice, including issues involving attorney-client privilege (ACP). To some extent the choice-of-law rules governing ACP are also – like other fields of the law - being “delocalized,” but in our view only partially. This paper discusses six approaches to choice of law issues governing ACP that are being used by the courts. Aside from the traditional lex loci approach (which simply applies the law of the forum to the …


Too Clever By Half: Reflections On Perception, Legitimacy, And Choice Of Law Under Revised Article 1 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Mark Edwin Burge Jul 2015

Too Clever By Half: Reflections On Perception, Legitimacy, And Choice Of Law Under Revised Article 1 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Mark Edwin Burge

Mark Edwin Burge

The overwhelmingly successful 2001 rewrite of Article 1 of the Uniform Commercial Code was accompanied by an overwhelming failure: proposed section 1-301 on contractual choice of law. As originally sent to the states, section 1-301 would have allowed non-consumer parties to a contract to select a governing law that bore no relation to their transaction. Proponents justifiably contended that such autonomy was consistent with emerging international norms and with the nature of contracts creating voluntary private obligations. Despite such arguments, the original version of section 1-301 was resoundingly rejected, gaining zero adoptions by the states before its withdrawal in 2008. …


Too Clever By Half: Reflections On Perception, Legitimacy, And Choice Of Law Under Revised Article 1 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Mark Edwin Burge Jul 2015

Too Clever By Half: Reflections On Perception, Legitimacy, And Choice Of Law Under Revised Article 1 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Mark Edwin Burge

Mark Edwin Burge

The overwhelmingly successful 2001 rewrite of Article 1 of the Uniform Commercial Code was accompanied by an overwhelming failure: proposed section 1-301 on contractual choice of law. As originally sent to the states, section 1-301 would have allowed non-consumer parties to a contract to select a governing law that bore no relation to their transaction. Proponents justifiably contended that such autonomy was consistent with emerging international norms and with the nature of contracts creating voluntary private obligations. Despite such arguments, the original version of section 1-301 was resoundingly rejected, gaining zero adoptions by the states before its withdrawal in 2008. …


Tortious Interference And The Law Of Contract: The Case For Specific Performance Revisited, Deepa Varadarajan Jun 2015

Tortious Interference And The Law Of Contract: The Case For Specific Performance Revisited, Deepa Varadarajan

Deepa Varadarajan

What is the role of contract law in remedying breach? The question of the appropriate legal remedy, specific performance versus money damages, has provided adequate fodder for three decades of debate in the law and economics discourse. In the legal discipline at large, the topic has spurred centuries of debate, as illustrated by Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous line: “The only universal consequence of a legally binding promise is, that the law makes the promisor pay damages if the promised event does not come to pass.” Holmes's approach to contractual remedy would evolve during the latter half of the twentieth century …


Contract Theory And The Failures Of Public-Private Contracting, Wendy Netter Epstein May 2015

Contract Theory And The Failures Of Public-Private Contracting, Wendy Netter Epstein

Wendy Netter Epstein

The market for public-private contracting is huge and flawed. Public-private contracts for services such as prisons and welfare administration tend to result in cost savings at the sacrifice of quality service. For instance, to cut costs, private prisons skimp on security. Public law scholars have studied these problems for decades and have proposed various public law solutions. But the literature is incomplete because it does not approach the problem through a commercial lens. This Article fills that gap. It considers how economic analysis of contract law, in particular efficiency theory and agency theory, bear upon the unique problems of public-private …


The Disgorgement Interest In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg Mar 2015

The Disgorgement Interest In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

Restatement Second of Contracts provided that contract law serves to protect one or more of three interests: the expectation interest, the reliance interest, and the restitution interest. There is, however, a fourth interest that contract law should and does protect: the disgorgement interest, which is the promisee's interest in requiring the promisor to disgorge a gain that was made possible by the promisor's breach, but did not consist of a benefit conferred on the promisor by the promisee. It is not clear why Restatement Second excluded the disgorgement interest. Perhaps the drafters believed that this position was compelled by positive …


Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophies In America, Christopher French Feb 2015

Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophies In America, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and lives were left in ruins in the wake of the storms. Nationwide, only approximately 7% of homeowners have insurance that covers flood losses even though the risk of flooding is only increasing as coastal areas continue to be developed and …


Visualization: Seeing Contracts For What They Are, And What They Could Become, Thomas Barton, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Helena Haapio Feb 2015

Visualization: Seeing Contracts For What They Are, And What They Could Become, Thomas Barton, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Helena Haapio

Thomas D. Barton

Commercial contract users read their contract documents infrequently, and understand them inadequately. The disincentives may be several: contract language may be too technical and too long; contracts may be organized around ensuring or avoiding legal liability rather than providing guidance toward performing contractual responsibilities; or contracts may rarely include frameworks that would prompt the parties to explore new opportunities. For whatever reason, the neglect by users of contractual documents can lead not only to unpleasant surprises in the performance or enforcement of particular contractual duties, but also to chronic underuse of contracts as potential instruments for planning, innovation, commercial relationship-building …


Chapter 1: Contracts, Thomas J. Barton, Jeffrey C. Hadden, Elizabeth M. Leonard Feb 2015

Chapter 1: Contracts, Thomas J. Barton, Jeffrey C. Hadden, Elizabeth M. Leonard

Thomas D. Barton

No abstract provided.


Innovating Contract Practices: Merging Contract Design With Information Design, Stefania Passera, Helena Haapio, Thomas D. Barton Feb 2015

Innovating Contract Practices: Merging Contract Design With Information Design, Stefania Passera, Helena Haapio, Thomas D. Barton

Thomas D. Barton

The work and expertise of contracts professionals are vital to the operations of modern organizations and the global economy. Strategic planning as well as everyday transactions can be conceived, developed, secured, and implemented through contractual relationships. This accelerating importance and functionality of contracts is not matched, however, by their traditional format or drafting process. Indeed, their mission-critical value is not fully appreciated by decision makers. Many opportunities offered by contracts remain unexplored if contracts are seen merely as legal tools needed only in case a dispute arises. A fresh approach to contracts and contracting is called for. Drawing on the …


Arbitration's Summer Soldiers: An Empirical Study Of Arbitration Clauses In Consumer And Nonconsumer Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller, Emily Sherwin Feb 2015

Arbitration's Summer Soldiers: An Empirical Study Of Arbitration Clauses In Consumer And Nonconsumer Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller, Emily Sherwin

Emily L Sherwin

We provide the first study of varying use of arbitration clauses across contracts within the same firms. Using a sample of 26 consumer contracts and 164 nonconsumer contracts from large public corporations, we compared arbitration clause use in consumer contracts with their use in the same firms' nonconsumer contracts. Over three-quarters of the consumer agreements provided for mandatory arbitration but less than 10% of the firms' material nonconsumer, nonemployment contracts included arbitration clauses. The absence of arbitration provisions in nearly all material contracts suggests that, ex ante, many firms value, even prefer, litigation over arbitration to resolve disputes with peers. …


The Harmonization Of Browsewrap Agreements Abroad And The Protection Of American Consumers, Tinsley A. Ashley Jan 2015

The Harmonization Of Browsewrap Agreements Abroad And The Protection Of American Consumers, Tinsley A. Ashley

Tinsley A Ashley

No abstract provided.


Dodging Windfalls: Damages Based On Market Price, Actual Loss, And Appropriate Awards, John Gotanda Dec 2014

Dodging Windfalls: Damages Based On Market Price, Actual Loss, And Appropriate Awards, John Gotanda

John Y Gotanda

This article draws on the underlying policy of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) to demonstrate that Article 76’s market damages approach permits an aggrieved party in certain circumstances to recover damages in excess of the aggrieved party's actual loss for the breach of the underlying contract. While at first glance this result may appear to be at odds with the principles of full compensation and mitigation, in reality, it is not. It is consistent with the text of the CISG damages provisions. In addition, it effectuates the parties' allocation of risk in …


Are "Legal" Marijuana Contracts "Illegal"?, Luke M. Scheuer Dec 2014

Are "Legal" Marijuana Contracts "Illegal"?, Luke M. Scheuer

Luke M Scheuer

America is currently in the midst of a “legal” marijuana business boom. In states which have legalized marijuana thousands of businesses have been created and are being openly operated despite the continued prohibition on their main product by the federal Controlled Substances Abuse Act. As a regular part of their business, these companies enter into contracts which violate the CSA, for example, every time they sell their main product. These businesses, and their stakeholders, rely upon the enforceability of these contracts in order to regulate their relationships. However, under the “illegality” or public policy defense to the enforcement of contracts …


The Transformation Of South African Private Law After Twenty Years Of Democracy, 14 Nw. J. Int’L Hum. Rts. (Forthcoming 2016)., Christopher J. Roederer Dec 2014

The Transformation Of South African Private Law After Twenty Years Of Democracy, 14 Nw. J. Int’L Hum. Rts. (Forthcoming 2016)., Christopher J. Roederer

Christopher J. Roederer

In The Transformation of South African Private Law after Ten Years of Democracy, 37 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 447 (2006), I evaluated the role of private law in consolidating South Africa’s constitutional democracy. There, I traced the negative effects of apartheid from public law to private law, and then to the law of delict, South Africa’s counterpart to tort law. I demonstrated that the law of delict failed to develop under apartheid and that the values animating the law of delict under apartheid were inconsistent with the values and aspirations of South Africa’s democratic transformation. By the end of …


Bubbles (Or, Some Reflections On The Basic Laws Of Human Relations), Donald J. Kochan Dec 2014

Bubbles (Or, Some Reflections On The Basic Laws Of Human Relations), Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Very few of us want to live in the absolute isolation of a “bubble.” Most humans cherish the capacity to interact with their external environment even when we know that, at times, such exposure makes us susceptible to all sorts of negative effects ranging from mere annoyance to the contraction of deadly illnesses. Yet, because there are so many positive elements and benefits from that interaction and exposure, we often are willing to take the bitter with the sweet. We tolerate much external exposure to bad things in order to take advantage of the collisions with the good things that …


The Role Of The Profit Imperative In Risk Management, Christopher French Dec 2014

The Role Of The Profit Imperative In Risk Management, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Risks in the world abound.  Every day there is a chance that each of us could be in a car accident.  Or, one of us could be the victim of a tornado, flood or earthquake.  Every day someone becomes deathly ill from an insidious disease.  Our properties are in constant peril—one’s house could catch fire at any time or a tree could fall on it during a storm.  Any one of these events could have devastating financial consequences, and they are just a few of the many risks that impact our daily lives.  One of the principal ways we manage …