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Full-Text Articles in Law
Designing And Enforcing Preliminary Agreements, Albert H. Choi, George Triantis
Designing And Enforcing Preliminary Agreements, Albert H. Choi, George Triantis
Articles
Preliminary agreements—variously labeled as memoranda of understanding, letters of intent, term sheets, commitment letters, or agreements in principle—are common in complex business transactions. They document an incomplete set of terms that the parties have agreed upon, while anticipating further negotiation of the remaining provisions. They often create legal obligations, particularly a duty to negotiate in good faith. This duty has been the subject of a substantial number of judicial opinions over the past few decades and yet continues to be regarded as a confusing and unpredictable issue in contract law. Legal scholarship is hamstrung in its analysis of the case …
Zapata Retold: Attorneys' Fees Are (Still) Not Governed By The Cisg, Harry Flechtner, Joseph Lookofsky
Zapata Retold: Attorneys' Fees Are (Still) Not Governed By The Cisg, Harry Flechtner, Joseph Lookofsky
Articles
In this work, the authors reiterate and expand on their conclusion that the question of reimbursement for attorney fees incurred in the course of litigating a claim under the United Nations Sales Convention (CISG) is beyond the scope of the CISG, and is governed by domestic law. As discussed in the paper, this conclusion is in line with a recent CISG Advisory Council Opinion (Advisory Council Opinion No. 6) dealing with the calculation of damages under Article 74 of the CISG. We argue that relegating to domestic law the question of recovering attorney fees incurred during litigation over a CISG …
Contracts Without Consent: Exploring A New Basis For Contractual Liability, Omri Ben-Shahar
Contracts Without Consent: Exploring A New Basis For Contractual Liability, Omri Ben-Shahar
Articles
This Essay explores an alternative to one of the pillars of contract law, that obligations arise only when there is "mutual assent "--when the parties reach consensus over the terms of the transaction. It explores a principle of "no-retraction," under which each party is obligated to terms it manifested and can retract only with some liability. In contrast to the all-or-nothing nature of the mutual assent regime, where preliminary forms of consent are either full-blown contracts or create no obligation, under the no-retraction regime, obligations emerge gradually, as the positions of the negotiating parties draw closer. Further, the no-retraction liability …
The Secrecy Interest In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, Lisa Bernstein
The Secrecy Interest In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, Lisa Bernstein
Articles
A long and distinguished line of law-and-economics articles has established that in many circumstances fully compensatory expectation damages are a desirable remedy for breach of contract because they induce both efficient performance and efficient breach. The expectation measure, which seeks to put the breached-against party in the position she would have been in had the contract been performed, has, therefore, rightly been chosen as the dominant contract default rule. It does a far better job of regulating breach-or-perform incentives than its leading competitors-the restitution measure, the reliance measure, and specific performance. This Essay does not directly take issue with the …
Form Contracts Under Revised Article 2 (Symposium: Consumer Protection And The Uniform Commercial Code), James J. White
Form Contracts Under Revised Article 2 (Symposium: Consumer Protection And The Uniform Commercial Code), James J. White
Articles
The current draft of section 2-206 in Revised Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") entitled "Consumer Contract: Standard Form"1 presents a unique and threatening challenge to the drafters of consumer form contracts. In earlier drafts, one part of the section applied to both to commercial contracts and consumer contracts. It required that "one manifest assent" to any form contract, commercial or consumer, in order for it to be binding.2 Bowing to commercial opposition in the most recent version, the drafters have omitted all reference to commercial contracts. As the section stands, it applies only to consumer contracts.
Exchange Loss Damages And The Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act: The Emperor Hasn't All His Clothes, Ronald A. Brand
Exchange Loss Damages And The Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act: The Emperor Hasn't All His Clothes, Ronald A. Brand
Articles
In 1989, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a new Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act. This Act is designed to change and clarify the law regarding judgments on obligations denominated in a foreign currency. It does so by recognizing that old rules preventing judgment in a foreign currency - developed in times of a strong dollar - are inappropriate. Unfortunately, in seeking fairness for plaintiffs when the U.S. dollar is weak, the Act replaces rigid old rules with stiff new rules that fail to address the basic issue of appropriate damages for exchange rate losses. While the …
Hiring Ruled Contractual, Bill Gore, Douglas A. Kahn, Stan Shields
Hiring Ruled Contractual, Bill Gore, Douglas A. Kahn, Stan Shields
Articles
On December 29, 1988, the California Supreme Court decided Foley vs. Interactive Data Corp., perhaps the most eagerly awaited state supreme court decision in years. The Foley ruling, which immediately was hailed as a tremendous victory for California employers, eliminated punitive damage awards for many wrongfully terminated employees. That was good news for the employers. The decision, however, also provided employers with sobering news. Most significantly, the court ruled that employment relationships essentially are contracts, with terms created by the reasonable expectation of the parties. Thus, the majority of California employees now have a right to sue for breach …
The Decline Of The Contract Market Damage Model, James J. White
The Decline Of The Contract Market Damage Model, James J. White
Articles
In law school every American lawyer learns that the conventional measure of damages for breach of a sales contract is the difference between the contract price and the market price. Even before these rules were embodied in the Uniform Sales Act and the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), they were a staple of Anglo-American common law. They remain the rules with which a court would determine damage liability not only for the sale of goods, but also for the sale of real estate and securities.
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
Articles
It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
Articles
It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Articles
In an action recently instituted by The General Electric Co. to recover on a contract to manufacture certain machinery for the defendant, which machinery the defendant had refused to accept, the trial court adopted the contract price as the measure of damages. The upper court approved this measure of damages, rejecting the argument that the measure should have been the difference between the market value and the contract price, and dismissed, as no longer appropriate to modern conditions, the decisions in Bement v. Smith, 15 Wend. (N. Y.) 493, and Shawhan v. Van Nest. 25 Oh. St. 490. The court …
Liquidated Damages And Estoppel By Contract, Joseph H. Drake
Liquidated Damages And Estoppel By Contract, Joseph H. Drake
Articles
In the last edition of "Sedgwick's Elements of the Law of Damages" the author says (p. 232) that the subject of liquidated damages has been put in a new light by the two cases of the Sun Printing and Publishing Association v. Moore1 and the Clydebank R. &S. Co. v. Castaneda,2 and that they may be expected to have a considerable effect upon the further development of the law on the subject. The learned author then presents the old canons of interpretation with full illustration from the cases, followed by the citation of the decisions above mentioned, and concludes that …
Effect Of A Change In The Law Upon Rights Of Actions And Defences, Thomas M. Cooley
Effect Of A Change In The Law Upon Rights Of Actions And Defences, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
A very interesting and important question frequently is, what effect has been produced upon a right of action, or upon a previously existing defence to an action, by a change in the law effected by statute after the right has accrued, or the cause of action has arisen, to which the defence was applicable. The question is encountered in a great variety of cases, and is sufficiently important to be considered under the several heads where the cases seem to range themselves. This is done imperfectly below.
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The distinctions between an action for a tort and one upon contract are such that where the one will lie the other generally will not; but there are nevertheless some cases in which either may be brought at the election of the party injured. Thus, it is sometimes the case, that, in a business relation, the law makes it the duty of a party to observe a certain course of conduct with regard to the rights of others, where by contract he has also undertaken for the same thing; and in such a case a breach of duty is coincident …
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The distinctions between an action for a tort and one upon contract are such that where the one will lie the other generally will not; but there are nevertheless some cases in which either may be brought at the election of the party injured. Thus, it is sometimes the case, that, in a business relation, the law makes it the duty of a party to observe a certain course of conduct with regard to the rights of others, where by contract he has also undertaken for the same thing; and in such a case a breach of duty is coincident …