Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Surety's Liability For "Bad Faith": Claims For Extra-Contractual Damages By An Obligee Under The Payment Bond, John J. Aromando
The Surety's Liability For "Bad Faith": Claims For Extra-Contractual Damages By An Obligee Under The Payment Bond, John J. Aromando
Maine Law Review
The theory of “bad faith” is by now well established in the areas of liability and casualty insurance. Although the relief available takes different forms in different jurisdictions, a common thread is the exposure of the insurance carrier to extra-contractual damages as a result of its conduct in handling a claim. Depending on the jurisdiction, these extra-contractual damages can include one or more of the following: penal interest and attorneys' fees; consequential damages for breach of contract; and recovery in tort. Even in the most restrictive jurisdiction the exposure is substantial, and in the most expansive it can be catastrophic. …
Poke Your Nose Into Your Clients' Businesses (If You Want To Understand Their Contracts), James W. Bowers
Poke Your Nose Into Your Clients' Businesses (If You Want To Understand Their Contracts), James W. Bowers
Maine Law Review
Thirty years ago Grant Gilmore argued that “Contract” was dead. This lecture, delivered as 2004 Godfrey Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Maine School of Law, considers the cause of death. Since the expired doctrines arose in a common law process, the lecture argues their demise resulted from the failings of lawyers, especially lawyers' commitment to wooden, formalist legal methods. I explore some of the reasons why lawyers became committed to these methods, and argue that even were nineteenth-century formalistic practices resurrected, modern lawyers must still be prepared to understand the potential effects business contexts might have in contract disputes and …
Reason And Reasonableness: The Necessary Diversity Of The Common Law, Frederic G. Sourgens
Reason And Reasonableness: The Necessary Diversity Of The Common Law, Frederic G. Sourgens
Maine Law Review
This Article addresses the central concept of “reasonableness” in the common law and constitutional jurisprudence. On the basis of three examples, the common law of torts, the common law of contracts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, the Article notes that different areas of the law follow fundamentally inconsistent utilitarian, pragmatic, and formalist reasonableness paradigms. The significance of this diversity of reasonableness paradigms remains largely under-theorized. This Article submits that the diversity of reasonableness paradigms is a necessary feature of the common law. It theorizes that the utilitarian, pragmatic and formalistic paradigms are structural elements driving the common law norm-generation process. This …