Law Commons^™

Undoing Undue Influence: How The Doctrine Can Avoid Judicial Subjectivity By Omitting The Vulnerability Element, Robin Boyle Laisure

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The utility of the doctrine of undue influence has been declining for several decades because of its inclusion of the element of vulnerability or, put another way, inquiry into the mind of the one allegedly being influenced. I argue that the courts’ inquiry into the mind of the influencee to determine whether this person was vulnerable is not a useful construct as an element of the doctrine. This Article addresses three contexts in which assessing one’s vulnerability is problematic: (1) in the contract formation process occurring in the general population (meaning not within a high-control group), such as the …

Why Does Lord Denning's Lead Balloon Intrigue Us Still? The Prospects Of Finding A Unifying Principle For Duress, Undue Influence And Unconscionability, Marcus Moore

All Faculty Publications

To this day, Lord Denning’s opinion in Lloyds Bank v Bundy remains a staple of first-year Contracts courses in law faculties across the common law world. After surveying doctrines such as duress, undue influence, and unconscionable bargains, Denning posited that they were instances of an underlying principle permitting avoidance of a contract for “inequality of bargaining power”. Although rejected by the House of Lords, Denning’s proposition has intrigued Contract scholars for more than four decades. Subsequent attempts to “fix” Denning’s thesis have fallen short. Yet, authors of Contract textbooks persist in asking whether the doctrines might yet be unified in …

Defects In Consent And Dividing The Benefit Of The Bargain: Recent Developments, Jeffrey Harrison

Jeffrey L Harrison

Contract law professors and students, attorneys, judges know that discussions about consent are rarely about consent. This results from three factors. First, it is the appearance of consent that is necessary to form a contract. Second, not every manifestation of consent is sufficient to create a contract that cannot be avoided. Third, interpretations of consent have the potential to allow courts to intervene when the benefit of the bargain is seen to be unfairly divided or one of the parties is actually worse off as a result of the contract. This Article assesses the extent to which recent decisions about …

Defects In Consent And Dividing The Benefit Of The Bargain: Recent Developments, Jeffrey L. Harrison

UF Law Faculty Publications

Contract law professors and students, attorneys, judges know that discussions about consent are rarely about consent. This results from three factors. First, it is the appearance of consent that is necessary to form a contract. Second, not every manifestation of consent is sufficient to create a contract that cannot be avoided. Third, interpretations of consent have the potential to allow courts to intervene when the benefit of the bargain is seen to be unfairly divided or one of the parties is actually worse off as a result of the contract. This Article assesses the extent to which recent decisions about …

'Leveling The Playing Field' With Contract Principles, Stephen A. Gerst

Stephen A Gerst

No abstract provided.

Coercion In Contract Law, E. Allan Farnsworth

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.