Commercial Law Commons^™

The Times They Are A-Changin': Innovation In The Modern Music Festival, Molly R. Madonia

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Musical festivals are, and have always been, a way for friends and families to gather together to celebrate the latest and greatest in music, food, and entertainment. From large festivals in major metropolitan cities to small, intimate shows, music festivals have long been a source of enjoyment to music fans and a source of inspiration to up-and-coming musicians. This Article will explore innovation within the modern music festival, including legal, political, and operational changes that affect festivals across the country. So, as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer so eloquently expressed, “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re …

The Application Of The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods Uniformity Interpretation Principle In U.S., Yuqing Nie

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (hereinafter: CISG) plays an increasingly important role in international sale of goods. However, the CISG is not always correctly applied, especially one of its basic principles – the uniform interpretation principle stated in its Article 7(1), which is usually ignored or incorrectly applied in its contracting States.

The CISG requires high-level uniformity, which requires the CISG to be applied autonomously if there involves parties from two CISG contracting States and the contract governing the transaction has no clause specifying other law as the governing law. Additionally, the CISG …

Crossing Troubled Waters: Joining Non-Signatories In Maritime Arbitration - The Co-Optation And Containment Of Consent In United States And British Law, Glenys P. Spence

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Does Contract Law Need Morality?, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Wenhao Liu

Faculty Scholarship

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 market-place as contributing to human flourishing that is a refreshing and welcome contribution in an era of market alarmism. But the mar-ket theory ultimately falls short as either a normative or prescriptive theory of contract. The extent to which law, public policy, and the-ory should account for values …

Online And "As Is", Colin P. Marks

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Alexa, Who Owns My Pillow Talk? Contracting, Collaterizing, And Monetizing Consumer Privacy Through Voice-Captured Personal Data, Anne Logsdon Smith

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

With over one-fourth of households in the U.S. alone now using voice-activated digital assistant devices such as Amazon’s Echo (better known as “Alexa”) and Google’s Home, companies are recording and transmitting record volumes of voice data from the privacy of people’s homes to servers across the globe. These devices capture conversations about everything from online shopping to food preferences to entertainment recommendations to bedtime stories, and even phone and appliance use. With “Big Data” and business analytics expected to be a $203 billion-plus industry by 2020, companies are racing to acquire and leverage consumer data by selling it, licensing it, …

Boilerplate’S False Dichotomy, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The argument against enforcing boilerplate contracts (contracts that no one reads) seems clear. Indeed, if this were a court case we would say that the jury is in; the evidence against boilerplate is overwhelming. Yet the judge has yet to render judgment. Courts continue to enforce boilerplate terms, and even those scholars who have exposed boilerplate as an emperor with no clothes are reluctant to gaze upon its nakedness and condemn its use.

This reluctance originates in an assumption that pervades the boilerplate debate—namely, that courts and commentators alike view boilerplate as necessary to the modern transaction. When asked to …

International Contracts, William P. Johnson, Sabin Volciuc-Ionescu, Catalin-Sergiu Dinu, Katya Logunov, Adrián Lucio Furman, Adam Rose, Willem Den Hertog

All Faculty Scholarship

This article identifies some of the key developments for international contracts that occurred in 2017 in a variety of jurisdictions, with particular attention given to commercial relationships that arise in connection with product distribution. Specifically, in this article we cover developments concerning international sales law (the CISG), choice of law in Romania, franchising in Canada, termination of commercial agency in Argentina, a court decision on scope of commercial agency law in the UK, and the creation of a new commercial court in the Netherlands.

Understanding The Consumer Review Fairness Act Of 2016, Eric Goldman

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Consumer reviews are vitally important to our modern economy. Markets become stronger and more efficient when consumers share their marketplace experiences and guide other consumers toward the best vendors and away from poor ones. Businesses recognize the importance of consumer reviews, and many businesses take numerous steps to manage how consumer reviews affect their public image. Unfortunately, in a misguided effort to control consumer reviews, some businesses have deployed contract provisions that ban or inhibit their consumers from reviewing them. I call those provisions “antireview clauses.”

Anti-review clauses distort the marketplace benefits society gets from consumer reviews by suppressing peer …

Do We Need A Global Commercial Code?, Michael Joachim Bonell

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) first launched the idea of preparing a code of inter- national trade law. In 1970, the Secretariat of UNIDROIT submitted a note to the newly established United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in justification of such an initiative and indicated some of the salient features of the project. What was proposed was a veritable code in the continental sense. The proposed code included two parts: part one dealing with the law of obligations generally, and part two relating to specific kinds of commercial transactions. However, the “Progressive codification …

Uniform Commercial Acts, Samuel Williston

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

The Uniform Commercial Acts, J.P. Mckeehan

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws have had twenty- five annual conferences. The principal fruit of their labors is represented by the Negotiable Instruments Act, enacted in forty-seven jurisdictions; the Warehouse Receipts Act, enacted in thirty-one jurisdictions; the Sales Act, enacted in fourteen jurisdictions, the Bills of Lading Act enacted in thirteen jurisdictions, and the Stock Transfer Act, enacted in nine jurisdictions. They have also drafted acts relating to divorce, family desertion, probate of wills, marriage evasion, workmen’s compensation and partnership but these have not yet been enacted in more than a few states. All of the commercial acts are …

Smart Contracts: Terminology, Technical Limitations And Real World Complexity, Eliza Mik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

If one is to believe the popular press and many “technical writings,” blockchains create not only a perfect transactional environment but also obviate the need for banks, lawyers and courts. The latter will soon be replaced by smart contracts: unbiased and infallible computer programs that form, perform and enforce agreements. Predictions of future revolutions must, however, be distinguished from the harsh reality of the commercial marketplace and the technical limitations of blockchains. The fact that a technological solution is innovative and elegant need not imply that it is commercially useful or legally viable. Apart from attempting a terminological “clean-up” surrounding …

Lord Denning’S Influence On Contract Formation In Singapore: An Overdue Demise?, Chia Ming Lee, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a series of inconsistent decisions by the Singapore courts on contract formation in continuing negotiations cases, Lord Denning’s broad approach—which does away with the traditional offer and acceptance analysis—appears to have been simultaneously adopted and rejected. This article suggests that the continued uncertainty in Singapore regarding the scope of application of the traditional approach and Lord Denning’s approach arises from a conflation of both as being substantially similar. This article further argues that both approaches are conceptually and practically distinct. A better way forward for Singapore law in the area of contract formation in continuing negotiations cases, having regard …

Tales From A Form Book: Stock Stories And Transactional Documents, Susan M. Chesler, Karen J. Sneddon

Montana Law Review

Tales from a Form Book: Stock Stories and Transactional Documents

Foreclosure Diversion And Mediation In The States, Alan M. White

Georgia State University Law Review

The recent mortgage foreclosure crisis, whose economic effects are well known, transformed state legal structures governing the mortgage foreclosure process. What had been a relatively routine system of default judgments and auction sales has evolved into a negotiation and workout practice in which homeowners contest foreclosures, demand loan modifications and short sales, and propose other alternatives to foreclosures.

A profusion of state laws and court orders were adopted between 2008 and 2014 with the aim of promoting negotiated foreclosure alternatives. These laws have produced a variety of experiments in the “laboratories of democracy.” The defaults—whether home loans are renegotiated, defaults …

Convergence Between Australian Common Law And English Common Law: The Rule Against Penalties In The Age Of Freedom Of Contract, Man Yip, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This note discusses the High Court of Australia decision of Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Bank Group Limited on the rule against penalty clauses and situates its importance in light of the UK Supreme Court decision of Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi and Beavis v ParkingEye Ltd.
It compares the analytical frameworks laid down in the two cases and
points out some unresolved issues in this area of law even following
these cases.

The New Era Of Doing Business With Iran: Iran’S International Commercial Transactions And Global Security, John Changiz Vafai

Pace International Law Review

On January 17, 2016, in a statement following his signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, President Obama addressed that country’s people, stating that “yours is a great civilization, with a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world – in commerce, and in science and the arts.” While the former U.S. President’s evaluation of the Iranian people’s greatness is indisputable, there are questions concerning doing business with Iran which transcend conventional legal issues and commercial problems.

Given the juxtaposition of Iran’s duopolistic government structure and ideologically oriented decision-making processes, questions arise as …

Market Information And The Elite Law Firm, Elisabeth De Fontenay

Faculty Scholarship

As a subcategory of contract negotiations, corporate transactions present information problems that have not been fully analyzed. In particular, the literature does not address the possibility that parties may simply be unaware of value-increasing transaction terms or their outside option. Such unawareness can arise even for transactions that attract many competing parties, if the bargaining process is such that (1) the price terms are negotiated and fixed prior to the non-price terms, contrary to the standard assumption; and (2) some of the non-price terms remain private for some period of time.

A simple bargaining model shows that, when such unawareness …

The Rules Of The Game And The Morality Of Efficient Breach, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Moralists have long criticized the theory of efficient breach for its advocacy of promise breaking. But a fully developed theory of efficient breach has an internal morality of its own. It argues that sophisticated parties contract for efficient breach, which in the long run maximizes everyone’s welfare. And the theory marks some breaches—those that are opportunistic, obstructive, or otherwise inefficient—as wrongs that the law should deter, as transgressions that should not be priced but punished. That internal morality, however, does not excuse the theory from moral scrutiny. An extended comparison to Jean Renoir’s 1939 film, La Règle du Jeu (“The …

Unauthorised Fiduciary Gains And The Constructive Trust, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article challenges the traditional assumption that all cases of unauthorised fiduciary gain warrant the same legal treatment, in particular the imposition of a constructive trust as a disgorgement remedy. It proposes a method of categorising the cases and ranking them based on the strength of the principal’s interest. It is suggested that in cases where the principal’s interest is not particularly strong, there is room for taking into account the interests of innocent third parties and affording them the necessary protection. For this purpose, the remedial constructive trust supplies the needed flexibility.

A Renewed Consideration Of Consideration: Mwb Business Exchange Centres Ltd V Rock Advertising Ltd [2016] Ewca Civ 553, Kenny Chng, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This note argues thatthe English Court of Appeal decision of MWBBusiness Exchange Centres Ltd v Rock Advertising Ltd is a significantmodification of the present understanding of consideration with respect toagreements to accept part-payments of a debt and to perform pre-existing duties,and that the preferred way forward for the development of the law should be judicialintervention by the Supreme Court to reconcile the logical inconsistenciesbetween Foakes v Beer and Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls(Contractors) Ltd.

Law School News Guiding Startups Through Legal Pickles: Law Students Launch Artisan Pickler And Other Businesses To Success 11/09/2016, Jill Rodriques

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Employment Agreements For The Inventing Worker: A Proposal For Reforming Trailer Clause Enforceability Guidelines, Peter Caldwell

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Consumer Preferences For Performance Defaults, Franklin G. Snyder, Ann M. Mirabito

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Commercial law in the United States is designed to facilitate private transactions, and thus to enforce the presumed intent of the parties, who generally are free to negotiate the terms they choose. But these contracts inevitably have gaps, both because the parties cannot anticipate every situation that might arise from their relationship, and because negotiation is not costless. When courts are faced with these gaps in a litigation context, they supply default terms to fill them. These defaults usually are set to reflect what courts believe similar parties would have agreed to if they had addressed the issue. These “majoritarian” …

Consumer Preferences For Performances Defaults, Franklin G. Snyder, Ann M. Mirabito

Faculty Scholarship

Commercial law in the United States is designed to facilitate private transactions, and thus to enforce the presumed intent of the parties, who generally are free to negotiate the terms they choose. But these contracts inevitably have gaps, both because the parties cannot anticipate every situation that might arise from their relationship, and because negotiation is not costless. When courts are faced with these gaps in a litigation context, they supply default terms to fill them. These defaults usually are set to reflect what courts believe similar parties would have agreed to if they had addressed the issue. These "majoritarian" …

Reasonable Standards For Contract Interpretations Under The Cisg, Donald J. Smythe

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The United Nations ("UN") Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Good ("CISG") offers the promise of harmonizing international sales law and facilitating international trade and global commerce. But there is a "homeward trend bias" that may encourage domestic courts to construe the gaps in the CISG broadly and fill them with non-uniform domestic legal rules. Questions about contract interpretation under the CISG raise the same concerns about a homeward trend bias as questions about the interpretation of express CISG provisions. The CISG has express provisions governing contract interpretation but their application may not provide an unambiguous interpretation. This …

A Comparative Study Of Party Autonomy And Its Limitations In International Contracts, Sarah Laval

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Convention On The Uniform Law Of International Bills Of Exchange And International Promissory Notes: A Comparison To The Uniform Commercial Code, Harold S. White

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Restitution Of Non-Gratuitously Conferred Benefit In Malaysia: A Case For Sowing The Unjust Enrichment Seed, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article draws on the common law of unjust enrichment to rationalize and develop the right to recover a non-gratuitously conferred benefit set out in section 71 of Malaysia’s Contracts Act 1950. This attempt at legal transplant and modern restatement is made in the hope of injecting principle and clarity into the antique section with the eventual goal of reviving it for practical and modern use.