Contracts Commons^™

Third-Party Bankruptcy Releases: An Analysis Of Consent Through The Lenses Of Due Process And Contract Law, Dorothy Coco

Fordham Law Review

Bankruptcy courts disagree on the use of third-party releases in Chapter 11 bankruptcy plans, the different factors that circuit courts consider when deciding whether to approve a third-party release, and the impact of the various consent definitions on whether a release is or should be binding on the creditor. Affirmative consent, “deemed consent,” and silence are important elements in this discussion. Both contract law and due process provide lenses to evaluate consent definitions to determine whether nondebtor third-party releases should bind certain creditor groups. This Note proposes a solution that follows an affirmative consent approach to protect against due process …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection Supreme Court Appellate Division Third Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Due Process Supreme Court Appellate Division Third Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Due Process Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

At Least Some Rights The White Man Was Bound To Respect: Bland V. Beverly And A Contract For Freedom In The Age Of Slavery, H. Robert Baker

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

By law in Maryland, slaves could not enter into legally binding contracts. Nonetheless, in 1833 Beverly Dowling struck an agreement with his owner, Sophia Bland, for his freedom in exchange for $200. Dowling paid $173 towards his end of the agreement before being arrested as a runaway and sold to a slave trader. Beverly Dowling petitioned the Baltimore city court for his freedom, and a jury found that he was free because he had, in the process of raising the money to pay his owner, traveled to the state of New York to work. I survey the law of manumission …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dartmouth College V. Woodward And The Structure Of Civil Society, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Still In Exile? The Current Status Of The Contract Clause, James W. Ely

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Contract Clause is no longer the subject of much judicial solicitude or academic interest.' Since the 1930s the once potent Contract Clause has been largely relegated to the outer reaches of constitutional law.2 This, of course, was not always the case. On the contrary, throughout the nineteenth century the Contract Clause was one of the most litigated provisions of the Constitution. In 1896, Justice George Shiras astutely commented: "No provision of the constitution of the United States has received more frequent consideration by this court than that which provides that no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Law Professors In Support Of Respondent Affluere Investments, Inc., Tenn. Wine & Spirits Retailers Ass'n V. Blair, No. 18-96 (U.S. Dec. 20, 2018)., Richard L. Aynes, James W. Ely Jr., Richard A. Epstein, Christopher R. Green, Ilya Somin, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Con Law Center Amicus Briefs

This case concerns whether a State may forbid United States citizens from plying a lawful trade based purely on the duration of their in-state residency. Tennessee law permits the retail sale of alcohol by anyone holding a state-issued retailer’s license. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 57-3-204. But the law restricts both the grant and renewal of such licenses based on the duration of an applicant’s Tennessee residency. See id. §§ 57-3-204(b)(2)(A), (3)(A)–(B), (3)(D). The Sixth Circuit held that those restrictions violate the negative (also known as the dormant) Commerce Clause and severed them from the rest of the statute. See …

“Liquidated Damages” In Guest Worker Contracts: Involuntary Servitude, Debt Peonage Or Valid Contract Clause?, Maria L. Ontiveros

Nevada Law Journal

Non-citizen migrant workers who come to the United States on short term work visas, especially H-1B visas, often sign contracts that include a promise to work for the employer for a set period of time. These contracts may include a “liquidated damages clause” that requires the worker to pay the employer a large sum of money if they stop working for the employer, either to switch employers or to return home. Because these sums of money are so large relative to the worker’s ability to pay, they prevent workers from leaving employment. This paper examines whether those liquidated damages clauses …

Slavery, Liberty, And The Right To Contract, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Things Invisible To See: State Action & Private Property, Joseph William Singer, Isaac Saidel-Goley

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article revisits the state action doctrine, a judicial invention that shields “private” or “non-governmental” discrimination from constitutional scrutiny. Traditionally, this doctrine has applied to discrimination even in places of public accommodation, like restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores. Born of overt racial discrimination, the doctrine has inflicted substantial injustice throughout its inglorious history, and courts have continuously struggled in vain to coherently apply the doctrine. Yet, the United States Supreme Court has not fully insulated “private” or “horizontal” relations among persons from constitutional scrutiny. The cases in which it has applied constitutional norms to non-governmental actors should be celebrated rather …

Forgotten Cases: Worthen V. Thomas, David F. Forte

Cleveland State Law Review

According to received opinion, the case of the Home Bldg. & Loan Ass’n v. Blaisdell, decided in 1934, laid to rest any force the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution had to limit state legislation that affected existing contracts. But the Supreme Court’s subsequent decisions belies that claim. In fact, a few months later, the Court unanimously decided Worthen v. Thomas, which reaffirmed the vitality of the Contract Clause. Over the next few years, in twenty cases, the Court limited the reach of Blaisdell and confirmed the limiting force of the Contract Clause on state legislation. Only …

Zombie Religious Institutions, Elizabeth Sepper

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article uncovers and names a phenomenon of pressing importance for healthcare policy and religious liberty law: the rise of zombie religious institutions—organizations that have contractual commitments to religious identity but lack actual attachments to churches or associations of religious people. Contracts create religion—sometimes in perpetuity—for institutions that are not, or never have been, religious and for providers who do not share the institution’s religious precepts. This Article details religion’s spread across healthcare through affiliations, mergers, and—most surprisingly—sales of hospitals that continue religious practice after their connection to a church ends. These contracts require hospitals—secular and religious, public and private, …

2017 Annual Survey: Recent Developments In Sports Law, Jordan Lysiak, Katherine Hampel

Marquette Sports Law Review

None

Federal Circuit Jurisdiction: Looking Back And Thinking Forward, Timothy B. Dyk

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Police Ignorance And Mistake Of Law Under The Fourth Amendment, Eang L. Ngov

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Changing Governance Models By Applying Blockchain Computing, Steve Young

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Student Protests And Academic Freedom In An Age Of #Blacklivesmatter, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Student activism has been part of the fabric of American higher education since the eighteenth century. Indeed, some scholars have called it "as American as apple pie." From Harvard's "Great Butter Rebellion" in 1766 when students pushed for better food to the multicultural movement of today when students have demanded increased diversity in student, staff, faculty, and curriculum, students have long pressed to have their voices heard. Continuing in this tradition, we now live in an age of student activists who, by organizing through social media, are getting more people involved in political conversations and causes than would otherwise …

Combating Impunity: Contractor Liability For Torture During Times Of War Under The Wartime Suspension Of Limitations Act, Claire Jabbour

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

2016 Survey Of Rhode Island Law: Cases And Public Laws Of Note

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Puerto Rico And The Netherworld Of Sovereign Debt Restructuring, Mitu Gulati, Robert K. Rasmussen

Faculty Scholarship

Puerto Rico has incurred debt well beyond its ability to repay. It attempted to address its fiscal woes through legislation allowing the restructuring of some its debt. The Supreme Court put a stop to this effort, holding that Congress in the Bankruptcy Code barred the Commonwealth from enacting its own restructuring regime. Yet all agreed that the Bankruptcy Code did not provide anything in its place. While Congress quickly enacted PROMESA in an attempt to address the Puerto Rico’s fiscal ills, we explore in this paper whether Congress has the power to bar Puerto Rico from enacting a restructuring mechanism …

Soviet Accession To The Universal Copyright Convention: Possible Implications For Future Foreign Publication Of Dissidents’ Works, Lee J. Ross Jr.

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of The Right To Contract: Noncompete Agreements As Thirteenth Amendment Violations, Ayesha Bell Hardaway

Seattle University Law Review

Employers in a variety of fields are increasingly imposing noncompete agreements on their workers as a condition of the workers’ at-will employment. These employees are working at or near minimum wage, in positions that require little or no advanced technical skills. Major news sources have highlighted this issue while covering recent employment litigation between Jimmy Johns and a pair of its former employees. In this litigation, two plaintiffs filed suit in federal court seeking injunctive relief and declaratory judgment invalidating the noncompete and confidentiality agreements that they signed with the sandwich maker. Granting defendant’s motion to dismiss, the Illinois District …

Slave Contracts And The Thirteenth Amendment, John C. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

The Thirteenth Amendment—the commandment that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States”— did not truly eradicate incidents of slavery. This is hardly a controversial point. The postwar emergence of the Black Codes—laws meant to confine African Americans’ ability to rent, travel, and live as free humans would expect to—ensured that slavery’s conditions continued unabated. The Amendment itself permits slavery to exist “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Still, did the Thirteenth Amendment not abolish the most fundamental characteristic of chattel slavery—the ability to trade in and …

When A Promise Is Not A Promise: Georgia's Law On Non-Compete Agreements, As Interpreted By The Eleventh Circuit In Keener V. Convergys Corporation, Gives Rise To Comity And Federalism Concerns, Christopher D. David

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

At The Intersection Of Religious Organization Missions And Employment Laws: The Case Of Minister Employment Suits, Jarod S. Gonzalez

Catholic University Law Review

Reviewing the intersection of a religious organization’s right to select employees based on their goals and mission and modern employment law, this article argues that the analysis of the ministerial exception will depend on the type of suit brought. Specifically, the Article identifies five analytical categories: (1) employment discrimination/employment retaliation claims; (2) breach of employment contract claims; (3) whistleblower claims; (4) tort claims; and (5) miscellaneous claims.

The Article begins by describing the ministerial exception and ecclesiastical abstention doctrines that exist under the First Amendment through the lens of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School …

Recent Supreme Court Employment Law Developments, Olati Johnson, Douglas D. Scherer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Waive Goodbye To Appellate Review Of Plea Bargaining: Specific Performance Of Appellate Waiver Provisions Should Be Limited To Extraordinary Circumstances, Holly P. Pratesi

Brooklyn Law Review

In the federal criminal justice system, plea bargaining remains the predominant method for disposing of cases. An important provision in most plea agreements consists of the waiver of the defendant’s right to appeal the conviction or sentence. This note explores the constitutional, contractual, and policy implications of a recent Third Circuit decision that would allow specific performance as a remedy where a defendant’s only breach of the plea agreement consists of filing an appeal arguably precluded by an appellate waiver provision. This note argues that the approach taken by the Third Circuit in United States v. Erwin could effectively preclude …