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Full-Text Articles in Law
Time’S Up: Against Shortening Statutes Of Limitation By Employment Contract, Meredith R. Miller
Time’S Up: Against Shortening Statutes Of Limitation By Employment Contract, Meredith R. Miller
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Employers are increasingly adding clauses to contracts with employees that purport to shorten the statutes of limitation for employees to pursue claims against their employers (“SOL Clauses”). SOL Clauses are being imposed on employees in various stages of the contracting process. They have turned up in job applications, offer letters, arbitration clauses, employment agreements and employee handbooks. Where they have been enforced by the courts, the justification has been a prioritization of “freedom of contract” over any other policy concerns. This Article argues that, in the employment context, “freedom of contract” should not be prioritized over other competing concerns, which …
Law And The Blockchain, Usha Rodrigues
Law And The Blockchain, Usha Rodrigues
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All contracts are necessarily incomplete. The inefficiencies of bargaining over every contingency, coupled with humans’ innate bounded rationality, mean that contracts cannot anticipate and address every potential eventuality. One role of law is to fill gaps in incomplete contracts with default rules. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that allows the cryptographic recording of transactions and permits “smart” contracts that self-execute automatically if their conditions are met. Because humans code the contracts of the blockchain, gaps in these contracts will arise. Yet in the world of “smart contracting” on the blockchain, there is no place for the law to step …
The Ethics Of Non-Traditional Contract Drafting, Lori D. Johnson
The Ethics Of Non-Traditional Contract Drafting, Lori D. Johnson
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A new generation of contract drafters faces increasing commentary advising them to change traditional contract terms into plain language constructions. Yet, traditional, tested terms have consistent meanings, and when these meanings benefit client objectives, advocates should consider retaining them. This article posits that failing to do so can impact a lawyer’s ethical obligations. Specifically, an attorney’s duties of competence, allocation of authority, diligence, and communication under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct require careful thought about modernizing tested contract terms. These duties require the ethical drafter to research whether the use of a traditional, tested term advances a client goal …
Say The Magic Word: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Contract Drafting Choices, Lori D. Johnson
Say The Magic Word: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Contract Drafting Choices, Lori D. Johnson
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Drafters of complex contracts often face a thorny dilemma – determining whether to retain “magic words” included in form documents, especially when considering the advice of current contract style scholars advocating for the removal of all traditional contract prose. But the drafter need not remove all terms that serve as elegant shorthand for more convoluted legal concepts, particularly where the inclusion of the term advances client interests. The application of rhetorical criticism – the analysis of methods of communicating ideas – to drafters’ use of the term “time is of the essence” sheds light on the dominant motivations of drafters …
Mandating Precontractual Disclosure, Eric H. Franklin
Mandating Precontractual Disclosure, Eric H. Franklin
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Parties negotiating an arm's-length contract are generally not required to disclose facts to one another. Although this default rule is supported by both centuries of common law and freedom of contract principles, courts and legislatures treat certain transactions differently. This is particularly true in circumstances in which the default rule results in an unacceptable harm suffered by a broad group of persons. In such cases, lawmakers have acted to impose precontractual disclosure obligations. These decisions and statutes are largely reactive: A harm is identified in a certain transaction's precontractual period and disclosure is mandated to rectify the harm. These reactive …
Effective Contract Drafting: Indentifying The Building Blocks Of Contracts, Lori D. Johnson
Effective Contract Drafting: Indentifying The Building Blocks Of Contracts, Lori D. Johnson
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No abstract provided.
Misclassifying The Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors Of Unilateral Contract Characterization, Hazel G. Beh, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Misclassifying The Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors Of Unilateral Contract Characterization, Hazel G. Beh, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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Insurance policies are traditionally classified as unilateral or “reverse-unilateral” contracts, a characterization we find largely incorrect, with problematic consequences for adjudication of insurance coverage disputes. In addition to the general difficulties attending the unilateral classification, the concept as applied to insurance policies is not only unhelpful but incorrect. Insurance policies are more accurately viewed as bilateral contracts. In addition, the unilateral characterization of insurance policies introduces error and inconsistency into the litigation of insurance controversies. In particular, the unilateral view tends toward excessive formalism and focus on so-called “conditions” precedent to coverage, eschewing material breach analysis and encouraging needless forfeitures …
Contracting Out Of Process, Contracting Out Of Corporate Accountability: An Argument Against Enforcement Of Pre-Dispute Limits On Process, Meredith R. Miller
Contracting Out Of Process, Contracting Out Of Corporate Accountability: An Argument Against Enforcement Of Pre-Dispute Limits On Process, Meredith R. Miller
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There have been many well-articulated and convincing critiques aimed at mandatory arbitration. Indeed, presently before Congress is proposed legislation titled the Arbitration Fairness Act, that would ban pre-dispute arbitration in the consumer, franchise and employment contexts. However, maligned as the plaintiff bar's pro-lawsuit legislation, the Arbitration Fairness Act is predicted to have very little chance of enactment. Consequently, across varying industries, the pre-dispute arbitration regime endures unheedingly. Thus, this Article sets aside the arguments aimed generally at pre-dispute arbitration clauses and, instead, sets its sights on some of the terms that seem to arise in such clauses. The focus here …
Mandating Minimum Quality In Mass Arbitration, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Mandating Minimum Quality In Mass Arbitration, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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The Supreme Court's decision in McMahon and its progeny has led many businesses and employers to embrace what was once deemed a localized, industry-specific practice. The "new" or "mass arbitration" only mildly resembles the traditional system employed by niches in industry for settling commercial matters among commercial actors. While the "old" system involved parties who were relatively equal in bargaining power and knowledge, these systems for mass arbitration lack a freely entered bargain and resemble more closely, contracts of adhesion. Privatized arbitration resolves issues of both statutory and substantive law, and there is a strong argument, given the inexperience of …
After The Battle Of The Forms, Francis J. Mootz Iii
After The Battle Of The Forms, Francis J. Mootz Iii
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Commercial parties continue to fight the battle of the forms, but electronic contracting is quickly rendering this practice obsolete. In this article I assess the legal landscape for commercial parties after the battle of the forms. In Section I, I briefly describe the (relatively) settled law under U.C.C. § 2-207. I then describe how these rules permit commercial parties to erect a force-field to protect themselves from being subjected to unwanted terms, and the developments in web-based contracting and recent case law applying contract formation principles to electronic contracting. Finally, I discuss how the growth of electronic contracting will eliminate …
Preface To The Gateway Thread, Deborah W. Post
Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.
A Slave's Marriage: Dowry Or Deposit, Alan Watson
A Slave's Marriage: Dowry Or Deposit, Alan Watson
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This articles examines the concept of dowry among marriage of slaves in ancient Rome.
Pitfalls Of Public Policy: The Case Of Arbitration Agreements, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Pitfalls Of Public Policy: The Case Of Arbitration Agreements, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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As the juxtaposition of these quotations suggests, judges have long held disparate views on the legitimacy and value of “public policy” considerations as a basis for legal decision making. The popular notion posits that Justice Holmes and legal realists carried the day, making public policy analysis an ordinary part of the adjudication process. The story, of course, is more complex than this legal version of Don Quixote. Many judges and lawyers, including Justice Holmes in other writings, continued to speak of adjudication in more formalist and positivist terms, with most laypersons in apparent agreement. Judge Burroughs' view of public policy …
Binding Contracts In Georgia Local Government Law: Configurations Of Codification, R. Perry Sentell Jr.
Binding Contracts In Georgia Local Government Law: Configurations Of Codification, R. Perry Sentell Jr.
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The potential for creating uncertainty looms as a primary and ever-present problem in the codification process. A dominant concern is the fear the unintended statutory changes--or, worse still, the quandary of whether what appears to be such a change was truly intended--may result. The perplexing issues emanating from that quandary can considerably dissipate the benefits of progressive statutory codification. For purely illustrative purposes, attention might be called to the present plight of an historic precept in Georgia local government law. That precept unflinchingly condemns a local governing authority's efforts to commit its successors to a given course of governmental action. …
Testamentary Substitutes: Retained Interests, Custodial Accounts And Contractual Transactions—A New Approach, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz
Testamentary Substitutes: Retained Interests, Custodial Accounts And Contractual Transactions—A New Approach, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz
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No abstract provided.
Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz
Testamentary Substitutes—A Time For Statutory Clarification, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz
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No abstract provided.
A New And Old Theory For Adjudicating Standardized Contracts, Eric Mills Holmes, Dagmar Thurmann
A New And Old Theory For Adjudicating Standardized Contracts, Eric Mills Holmes, Dagmar Thurmann
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The purpose of this article is rather simple, extracting a new theory of standard form contracts from the good bits of the spectrum of "old" ideas and combining them with some fresh rethinking. For something fresh, the authors choose to examine the German law on standard form contracts. The authors have tried to remain neutral observers but in extracting the best from the spectrum of ideas one necessarily states--in this instance, one of pragmatic compromise. Thus, this article will cull and identify elements from the spectrum specifically concerning standard form contracts and compare them with the German approach. This process …
The Evolution Of Law: The Roman System Of Contracts, Alan Watson
The Evolution Of Law: The Roman System Of Contracts, Alan Watson
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I have two aims in producing this paper. First, I wish to contribute to the general understanding of how and why law develops and explain the evolution of some very familiar legal institutions. Second, I wish to add to our knowledge of the history of Roman law, by producing a radically different view of the development of contracts, that is, I believe, both consistent with surviving textual data and plausible with regard to human behavior.