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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin Oct 2010

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin

American University Law Review

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account …


Could Breach Of Contract Be Immoral?, Seana Shiffrin Jun 2009

Could Breach Of Contract Be Immoral?, Seana Shiffrin

Michigan Law Review

Some scholars defend the contract law's ban on punitive damage awards on the grounds that breach of contract, in itself, is not morally wrong. In this Article, I offer two responses. First, I refute one prevalent argument of Steven Shavell's in support of this view. Shavell argues that contractual breach is not immoral in those cases in which the legal regime would offer expectation damages because the contracting parties would not have agreed to require performance had they explicitly deliberated about the circumstances occasioning the breach. I criticize his argument for failing to justify this hypothetical-contract approach and, in any …


To Err Is Human, Keith A. Rowley Jan 2006

To Err Is Human, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

This essay reviews Allan Farnsworth's final book, Alleviating Mistakes: Reversal and Forgiveness for Flawed Perceptions (Oxford U. Press 2004). There are many kinds of mistakes. One kind - a rational, well-intended decision or act that results in unanticipated, negative consequences - was the principal subject of Allan Farnsworth's previous foray into the realm of contractual angst: Changing Your Mind: The Law of Regretted Decisions (Yale U. Press 1998). Another kind - the subject of this book - is a mistake caused by an inaccurate, incomplete, or incompetent mental state at the time of an act or decision that results in …


Contracts - Sales - Effect Of Reasonable Belief In Buyer's Insolvency On Seller's Duty To Perform, W. Wallace Kent Nov 1940

Contracts - Sales - Effect Of Reasonable Belief In Buyer's Insolvency On Seller's Duty To Perform, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff ordered goods from the defendant, for immediate delivery, terms $1,500 down, balance covered by notes of three and six months. The check given for the down payment was dishonored because of insufficient funds but was subsequently honored. On investigation the defendant discovered that there were unpaid judgments outstanding against the plaintiff, some of which were upwards of three years old. Inferring that the plaintiff was insolvent, the defendant refused to deliver the goods unless cash was paid therefor and when plaintiff refused this offer defendant attempted to return the down payment. Held, plaintiff's affairs were in such …