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Full-Text Articles in Law
Expecting Specific Performance, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, David Hoffman, Emily Campbell
Expecting Specific Performance, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, David Hoffman, Emily Campbell
Articles
Using a series of surveys and experiments, we find that ordinary people think that courts will give them exactly what they bargained for after breach of contract; in other words, specific performance is the expected contractual remedy. This expectation is widespread even for the diverse array of deals where the legal remedy is traditionally limited to money damages. But for a significant fraction of people, the focus on equity seems to be a naïve belief that is open to updating. In the studies reported here, individuals were less likely to anticipate specific performance when they were briefly introduced to the …
Specific Performance: On Freedom And Commitment In Contract Law, Hanoch Dagan, Michael A. Heller
Specific Performance: On Freedom And Commitment In Contract Law, Hanoch Dagan, Michael A. Heller
Faculty Scholarship
When should specific performance be available for breach of contract? This question — at the core of contract — divides common-law and civil-law jurisdictions and it has bedeviled generations of comparativists, along with legal economists, historians, and philosophers. Yet none of these disciplines has provided a persuasive answer. This Article provides a normatively attractive and conceptually coherent account, one grounded in respect for the autonomy of the promisor’s future self. Properly understood, autonomy explains why expectation damages should be the ordinary remedy for contract breach. This same normative commitment justifies the “uniqueness exception,” where specific performance is typically awarded, and …