Law Commons^™

Corporations And Autonomy Theories Of Contract: A Critique Of The New Lex Mercatoria, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

One of the central problems of contracts jurisprudence is the conflict between autonomy theories of contract and efficiency theories of contract. One approach to solving this conflict is to argue that in the realm of contracts between corporations, autonomy theories have nothing to say because corporations are not real people with whose autonomy we need to be concerned. While apparently powerful, this argument ultimately fails because it implicitly assumes theories of the corporation at odds with economic theories of law. Economics, in turn, offers a vision of the firm that is quite hospitable to autonomy theories of contract. The failure …

A Pragmatic Defense Of Contract Law, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

Is It Time For The Restatement Of Contracts, Fourth?, Peter A. Alces, Christopher Byrne

Christopher Byrne

No abstract provided.

Unintelligent Design In Contract, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

Scholars have expended considerable energy in the effort to "discover" a normative theory of Contract. This Article surveys that effort and concludes that something fundamental about Contract has been missed and has frustrated the search from the outset. Succinctly, Contract doctrine resists the neat formulation theory requires. Theorists' perspectives on Contract may be generalized as attempts to impute either deontology or consequentialism to the Contract law. Focusing largely on deontological constructions of Contract, this Article demonstrates the inconsistencies among the extant heuristics-promise, reliance, and transfer-and more importantly, the failure of any of those constructions to provide a coherent explanation of …

They Can Do What!? Limitations On The Use Of Change-Of-Terms Clauses, Peter A. Alces, Michael M. Greenfield

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

The Moral Impossibility Of Contract, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Reinventing The Wheel, Marion W. Benfield Jr., Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Statutory Personal Property Lease Law In Alabama, Peter A. Alces, P. Cade Newman

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Regret And Contract "Science", Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

On Discovering Doctrine: "Justice" In Contract Agreement, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Is It Time For The Restatement Of Contracts, Fourth?, Peter A. Alces, Christopher Byrne

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Guerilla Terms, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Contract Reconceived, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Carrying A Good Joke Too Far, Peter A. Alces, Jason M. Hopkins

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Smart Contracts And Consumers, Tatiana Cutts

West Virginia Law Review

“Smart contracts” are a way of using computers to make contracts unbreakable. Contracting parties do not need to trust one another to perform or rely upon intermediaries to enforce performance. Performance is guaranteed. This is supposed to be a victory for the ordinary person—a clever socio-economic application of cryptography that strips power from companies and governments and gives it to consumers. But it turns out that less trust does not mean more freedom, or better bargains. The law of contract supports valuable relationships both by enforcing duties and by allowing parties to escape the consequences of ill-formed contracts and oppressive …

The World Of Contract And The World Of Gift, Melvin Aron Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

Examines the social and legal implications of the treatment of donative promise as an absolute enforceable contract in the United States. Evolution of the donative-promise doctrine; Case laws on donative promise; Moral and social significance of donative promises; Substantive bases for donative-promise principle.

Mistake In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

Develops the legal rules that should govern mistake in contract law on a functional basis. Types of mistake that are relevant in contract law on the basis of their character; Reasons of efficiency and morality that apply to cases in which a non-mistaken party knew or had reason to know that a payment was mistakenly made; Distinction between mistaken factual assumptions and evaluative mistakes.

The Principle Of Hadley V. Baxendale, Melvin Aron Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

No abstract provided.

Expression Rules In Contract Law And Problems Of Offer And Acceptance, Melvin Aron Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

The issue of interpretation is central to contract taw, because a major goat of that body of law is to facilitate the power of self-governing parties to further their shared objectives through contracting. Modern contract law has developed a set of general principles of interpretation that give a place to both objective and subjective elements, and must be applied on an individualized basis. However, a number of narrower black-letter rules give a purely objective and standardized interpretation to certain kinds of expressions, and these standardized interpretations may often differ from the meanings such expressions would be given under the general …

Disclosure In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

Develops the Disclosure Principle that should govern disclosure in contract law. Reasons for requiring disclosure; Concept of a tacit assumption; Paradigm cases that exemplifies the disclosure problem.

Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

Liberalism’s concern with human freedom seems related to contractual freedom and thus contract law. There are, however, many strands of liberal thought and which of them best justifies contract is a difficult question. In The Choice Theory of Contracts, Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller offer a vision of contract based on autonomy. Drawing on the work of Joseph Raz, they argue that extending autonomy should be the law’s primary concern, which requires that we extend the range of contractual choices available. While there is much to admire in their work, I argue that autonomy as conceived by Dagan and Heller …

Law Library Blog (August 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Money That Costs Too Much: Regulating Financial Incentives, Kristen Underhill

Indiana Law Journal

Money may not corrupt. But should we worry if it corrodes? Legal scholars in a range of fields have expressed concern about “motivational crowding-out,” a process by which offering financial rewards for good behavior may undermine laudable social motivations, like professionalism or civic duty. Disquiet about the motivational impacts of incentives has now extended to health law, employment law, tax, torts, contracts, criminal law, property, and beyond. In some cases, the fear of crowding-out has inspired concrete opposition to innovative policies that marshal incentives to change individual behavior. But to date, our fears about crowding-out have been unfocused and amorphous; …

A New Look At Contract Mistake Doctrine And Personal Injury Releases, Grace M. Giesel

Grace M. Giesel

One might expect a court to look very skeptically when a party to a personal injury release asks a court to set aside the release. But many courts have reacted atypically when injured parties who have settled their claims have sought to have those releases set aside on the basis of a lack of understanding or knowledge about the injury. Absent facts supporting a claim of fraud or duress, injured parties have turned to the mistake doctrine for relief.

Mitigating Risk, Eradicating Slavery, Ramona Lampley

Faculty Articles

For U.S. companies with forced labor or child labor in the supply chain, litigation is on the rise. This Article surveys the current litigation landscape involving forced labor in the supply chain. It ultimately concludes that domestic corporations that source from international suppliers should adopt the Model Contract Clauses drafted by the ABA Business Law Section Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in International Supply Contracts ("Working Group"). This Article traces the origins of cases involving supply chain forced labor, beginning with the early employee negligence cases that form the backdrop of existing case law and the cornerstone of …

Loyalty Loses Ground To Market Freedom In The U.S. Supreme Court, Daniel Harris

William & Mary Business Law Review

In the last decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken a much less moralistic and much more market-oriented approach to questions of fiduciary loyalty. In cases involving fiduciaries with conflicts of interest, the Court has shifted the burden of proof to the party claiming unfair treatment, thereby protecting deals and making loyalty harder to enforce. The Court has also struck down or narrowly construed laws designed to prevent disloyalty by fiduciaries on the theory that broad prohibitions on business conduct encroach on constitutionally protected freedoms.

This Article discusses how the Supreme Court’s new approach represents a departure from the Court’s …

Contract Interpretation Enforcement Costs: An Empirical Study Of Textualism Versus Contextualism Conducted Via The West Key Number System, Joshua M. Silverstein

Hofstra Law Review

This Article sets forth an empirical study of a central issue in the judicial and academic debate over the optimal method of contract interpretation: Whether "textualism" or "contextualism" best minimizes contract enforcement costs. The study measured enforcement costs in twelve ways. Under each of those measures, there was no statistically significant difference in the level of interpretation litigation between textualist and contextualist regimes. Accordingly, the study finds no support for either the textualist hypothesis that contextualism has higher enforcement costs or the contextualist counter-hypothesis that textualism has higher enforcement costs.

The study herein was conducted via the West Key Number …

Interpreting Organizational "Contracts" And The Private Ordering Of Public Company Governance, Megan Wischmeier Shaner

William & Mary Law Review

Corporate law is undergoing an explosion of governance by private ordering. With increasing frequency and creativity, the charter and bylaws of public corporations are being used as tools for restructuring key aspects of corporate governance. The current focus of parties, courts, and scholars has been on the facial validity of these efforts. In light of courts’ willingness to uphold corporate governance contracting, legal battles will morph from validity challenges to interpretation disputes. Yet interpretation principles are a topic to which corporate scholars have devoted limited attention. With interpretation poised to take on an influential role in shaping corporate law and …

Decoding Smart Contracts: Technology, Legitimacy, & Legislative Uniformity, Jared Arcari

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Blockchain technology is increasingly permeating the everyday lives of countless people. Applications of the cutting-edge technology range from secured banking to tracking mortgage titles. A particular blockchain technology, dubbed “smart contracts,” has the potential to revolutionize how individuals and companies securely contract with each other. Smart contracts, however, are not widely employed, mainly because potential users are uncertain of their enforceability as contracts under existing state contract laws. Similar skepticism slowed the acceptance of electronic signatures in the late 1990s, but was resolved ultimately through a model uniform act recognizing electronic signatures’ effectiveness across interstate borders. This Note proposes a …

Reputational And Integrity Due Diligence On Investors, Kroll, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Before deciding to invest, companies and investors will perform background research on the uncertainties and risks associated with the proposed investment. For natural resource projects, there are risks around geology, market and price developments, construction delays, operations, regulatory changes, political disruptions, and reputational issues. Feasibility studies and due diligence assessments aim to better understand these risks, reduce uncertainty where possible and be better prepared to manage them.

Governments too should understand the risks that are associated with the proposed investments and get to know the investors before entering into negotiations or signing contracts. This is particularly important for long-term agreements …