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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Pragmatist’S View Of Promissory Law With A Focus On Consent And Reliance, Robert A. Hillman
A Pragmatist’S View Of Promissory Law With A Focus On Consent And Reliance, Robert A. Hillman
William & Mary Business Law Review
This Article discusses Professor Nate Oman’s excellent new book, The Dignity of Commerce, which makes an impressive case for how markets can produce “desirable” outcomes for society. In addition to a comprehensive account of what he calls “virtues” of markets, such as their tendency to produce cooperation, trust, and wealth, the book is full of useful and persuasive supporting information and discussions.
Oman is not only a fan of markets, but he asserts that markets are the “center” of contract theory, and provide its normative foundation. Elaborating, Oman concludes that “contract law exists primarily to support markets” and that …
Contract, Promise, And The Right Of Redress, Andrew S. Gold
Contract, Promise, And The Right Of Redress, Andrew S. Gold
William & Mary Business Law Review
This Essay reviews Nathan Oman’s recent book, The Dignity of Commerce. The book is compelling, and it makes an important and original contribution to contract theory—a contribution that insightfully shows how markets matter. Yet, in the course of developing a market-centered justification for contract law, The Dignity of Commerce also downplays the significance of consent and promissory morality. In both cases, the book’s argument is problematic, but this Essay will address questions of promissory morality. Oman contends that promise-based accounts struggle with contract law’s bilateralism and with its private standing doctrine. Yet, promissory morality is a very good fit …
Does Contract Law Need Morality?, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Wenhao Liu
Does Contract Law Need Morality?, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Wenhao Liu
William & Mary Business Law Review
In The Dignity of Commerce, Nathan Oman sets out an ambitious market theory of contract, which he argues is a superior normative foundation for contract law than either the moralist or economic justifications that currently dominate contract theory. In doing so, he sets out a robust defense of commerce and the marketplace as contributing to human flourishing that is a refreshing and welcome contribution in an era of market alarmism. But the market theory ultimately falls short as either a normative or prescriptive theory of contract. The extent to which law, public policy, and theory should account for values …
Markets And Morals: The Limits Of Doux Commerce, Mark L. Movsesian
Markets And Morals: The Limits Of Doux Commerce, Mark L. Movsesian
William & Mary Business Law Review
In this Essay on Professor Oman’s beautifully written and meticulously researched book, The Dignity of Commerce, I do three things. First, I describe what I take to be the central message of the book, namely, that markets promote liberal values of tolerance, pluralism, and cooperation among rival, even hostile groups. Second, I show how Oman’s argument draws from a line of political and economic thought that dates to the Enlightenment, the so-called doux commerce thesis of thinkers like Montesquieu and Adam Smith. Finally, I discuss what I consider the most penetrating criticism of that thesis, Edmund Burke’s critique from …
Human Dignity And American Employment Law, David C. Yamada
Human Dignity And American Employment Law, David C. Yamada
University of Richmond Law Review
No abstract provided.
Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia
Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article attempts to lay the foundation for such a framework in the area of international trade law. More specifically, this Article develops the argument that the principle of special and differential treatment, a key element of the developing world's trade agenda, plays a central role in satisfying the moral obligations that wealthier states owe poorer states as a matter of distributive justice. Seen in this light, the principle of special and differential treatment is more than just a political accommodation: it reflects a moral obligation stemming from the economic inequality among states.
Capitalism And Democracy, Owen M. Fiss
Capitalism And Democracy, Owen M. Fiss
Michigan Journal of International Law
Socialism has collapsed. The long, historic struggle between capitalism and socialism has come to an end, and capitalism has emerged the victor. This turn of events was foreshadowed by the privatization movement of the late 1970s and 1980s that swept England, the United States, and a number of Latin American countries. History still awaited the renunciation of socialism by those who lived it, but that soon came in the form of the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and in the spiraling chain of events, set in motion by "perestroika," that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union …