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Full-Text Articles in Law

Reviving Jacob And Youngs, Inc. V. Kent: Material Breach Doctrine Reconsidered, Amy B. Cohen Jan 1997

Reviving Jacob And Youngs, Inc. V. Kent: Material Breach Doctrine Reconsidered, Amy B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

Determining whether a material breach has occurred under current law involves a weighing of several factors, a determination that often seems either completely without logic or precision, or self-evident and conclusory. Thus, parties are left not knowing what to do and what risks they may be assuming. The problem with the current application of material breach doctrine is in large part a result of an absence of focus. The courts apply the test without articulating any foundation or context on which it is based. The law in this area could be much improved if courts would return to Judge Cardozo's …


Judicial Lawmaking In A Code Jurisdiction: A French Saga On Certainty Of Price In Contract Law, Edward A. Tomlinson Jan 1997

Judicial Lawmaking In A Code Jurisdiction: A French Saga On Certainty Of Price In Contract Law, Edward A. Tomlinson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Standard Form Contracts, Avery W. Katz Jan 1997

Standard Form Contracts, Avery W. Katz

Faculty Scholarship

Among legal commentators, standard form contracts have long been received with distrust, and the rules governing their interpretation have engendered considerable controversy. While economic analysis has little to say regarding the libertarian objection to standard form contracts or their relationship to personal autonomy, it can help evaluate their effects on efficiency and the distribution of the gains from trade. From such a perspective, standard forms should be analyzed like any other productive input, comparable to design, marketing, and technical support. Whether their use raises any special regulatory or policy concerns, therefore, depends on their implications for the standard litany of …


Review Of Why Things Bite Back: Technology And The Revenge Of Unintended Consequences By Edward Tenner, Jay D. Wexler Jan 1997

Review Of Why Things Bite Back: Technology And The Revenge Of Unintended Consequences By Edward Tenner, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

Historian of science Edward Tenner begins his book with a typical example of what he sees as the irony of modern life in a technological society. With the advent of electronic mail and inter-office networking, one would expect that the amount of paper used in offices would markedly decline, but in fact, notes Tenner, paper recycling bins are more full than ever before. People do indeed communicate through e-mail, but since they mistrust the permanence of electronic transmissions, they also back them up with an ever increasing amount of paper communication. In his typically amusing way, Tenner notes that when …


The Net Profits Puzzle, Victor P. Goldberg Jan 1997

The Net Profits Puzzle, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The use of "net profits" clauses in the movie business poses a problem. The standard perception is that Hollywood accounting results in successful films showing no net profits. If that is indeed so, then why have they survived for over four decades? This Essay argues that a successful movie will fail to yield net profits only if a "gross participant" (a major star whose compensation is in part a function of the film's gross receipts) becomes associated with the film. Since the net profits participants typically are associated with a project first, the question becomes: Why would they be willing …


The United States Parol Evidence Rule Under The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods, David H. Moore Jan 1997

The United States Parol Evidence Rule Under The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods, David H. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Contract Formation And Interpretation, Avery W. Katz Jan 1997

Contract Formation And Interpretation, Avery W. Katz

Faculty Scholarship

Much research in law and economics, following Coase's insight that the effects of a legal rule depend on the ability of those whom it governs to bargain around it, has undertaken to explain how substantive entitlements such as property rights influence the bargaining process. Perhaps more important than any substantive rights or duties in this regard, however, is the extensive body of contract doctrine that governs the procedural mechanics of exchange. The formal rules of contract formation, by attaching consequences to the various acts and omissions that bargainers can choose from in a negotiation, affect the parties' incentives to make …


The "Battle Of The Forms": Fairness, Efficiency, And The Best-Shot Rule, Victor P. Goldberg Jan 1997

The "Battle Of The Forms": Fairness, Efficiency, And The Best-Shot Rule, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

After the parties agree to a sale, the buyer sends a purchase order with one set of boilerplate terms on the reverse side; the seller responds with an acknowledgment and invoice with another set of boilerplate terms. Do they have a contract? If so, on what terms? This so-called "battle of the forms" has given rise to a great outpouring of scholarship and a legislative solution widely perceived as inartfully drafted and generally unsatisfactory. In particular, the Code solution has been criticized because it attempted to solve both the formation and interpretation problems with one rule. The Uniform Commercial Code …


Text And Context In International Dispute Resolution, William W. Park Jan 1997

Text And Context In International Dispute Resolution, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

More than one thoughtful business manager has contemplated the prospect of litigation abroad in terms analogous to those used by the 19th century diarist quoted above. When an international venture goes awry, the dramatically disagreeable consequences can often include the "hometown justice" of the other side's national courts: unfamiliar procedures, perhaps a foreign language, and in some countries, a xenophobic or even corrupt judge.