Contracts Commons^™

Punitive Damages, Liquidated Damages, And Clauses Penale In Contract Actions: A Comparative Analysis Of The American Common Law And The French Code Civil, Charles R. Calleros

ExpressO

Although American common law allows punitive damages for reckless or intentional torts, it will neither allow a jury to assess punitive damages for breach of contract nor permit enforcement of a contractual damages clause that is deemed to be punitive. This approach is rooted in an early Chancery practice of granting equitable relief from oppressive penal bonds and has been more recently justified as a means of facilitating efficient breach. Economic efficiency, however, can be accomplished even if punitive damages could be assessed for intentional breach, because the parties would have an incentive to negotiate a release from the first …

The Secret Is Out: Patent Law Preempts Mass Market License Terms Barring Reverse Engineering For Interoperability Purposes, Daniel Laster

ExpressO

As patent protection has emerged to protect software, courts and commentators have mistakenly focused on copyright law and overlooked the centrality of patent preemption to limit contract law where a mass market license which prohibits reverse engineering (RE) for purposes of developing interoperable products leads to patent-like protection. Review of copyright fair use cases on RE and Congress’s policy favoring RE for interoperability purposes in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act reinforce the case for patent preemption. Also, the fundamental freedom to RE embodied in state trade secret law, coupled with federal patent and copyright law and policies, cumulatively should override …

When Are Agreements Enforceable? Giving Consideration To Professor Barnett's Consent Theory Of Contract, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

This address considers five points: (1) the place of theory in American contract law; (2) the basic elements of Professor Barnett's theory are; (3) how these elements are similar to Continental law; (4) what it says about the American legal world that Barnett's theory has been discussed without reference to Continental systems; and, finally, (5) why I believe the American model is not a good one for a future European Civil Code but also hope that such a Code will become law.

The Impact Of Eu Unfair Contract Terms Law On U.S. Business-To-Consumer Internet Merchants, Jane K. Winn, Mark Webber

Articles

This article focuses on the application of European Union unfair contract terms law to retail Internet transactions that U.S. businesses might engage in with European consumers. It compares attitudes toward consumer protection regulation in the U.S. and the EU to provide some context within which the specific provisions of unfair contract terms law can be understood.

While many lawyers and legal academics in the U.S. who study the development of online markets are aware of the profound differences in U.S. and EU information privacy laws, the magnitude of the divergence in consumer electronic contracting law is not as widely recognized. …

“The (Cisg) Road Less Travelled”: Case Comment On Grecon Dimter Inc. V. J.R. Normand Inc., Antonin I. Pribetic

ExpressO

At first glance, the Supreme Court of Canada's recent decision in GreCon Dimter Inc. v. J.R. Normand Inc. appears to be a case upholding the primacy of international commercial arbitration, choice of forum and choice of law clauses. Upon closer scrutiny, however, the Supreme Court of Canada failed to consider the application of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) to the overall dispute. Interestingly, the same choice of forum and choice of law clauses were considered by the United States Court of Appeals a year earlier in GreCon Dimter, Incorporated v. Horner Flooring Company, …

Preparing For Cafta-Dr: The Need Of Commercial Law Reform In Central America, Omar E. Garcia-Bolivar

ExpressO

This article explores the policies, laws and institutions that may prevent Central American States from exploiting the opportunities provided by the CAFTA-DR. In that sense, we examine several of the legal factors that appear to be important in determining economic growth as they apply to the commercial legal conditions of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Remedies And The Cisg: Another Perspective, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this brief comment, I apply behavioral decision theory to the question of the enforcement in transnational sales of super-compensatory agreed damages. I conclude that a good case can be made that such damages provisions should be enforced.

Finding The Contract In Contracts For Law, Forum, And Arbitration, William John Woodward

ExpressO

Contract provisions specifying the law or forum (either judicial or arbitration) have begun appearing in litigated cases, as businesses have pressed many courts for their enforcement against consumers. In at least some of the cases, enforcement of a choice of law provision results in the displacement of the consumer’s home state protection by the lesser consumer protection of the State of the form drafter’s choosing. This phenomenon raises serious problems of federalism and local control of consumer protection. But while considerable scholarly attention has been lavished on so-called “mandatory arbitration” in this context, much less has attempted to improve our …

Estudio Comparativo De La Formacion De Contratos Electronicos En El Derecho Estadounidense Con Referencia Al Derecho International Y Al Derecho Mexicano, Roberto Rosas

Faculty Articles

The author presents the underlying fundamental contractual principles in American law, and in this respect, tire Uniform Commercial Code, with particular emphasis in how electronic transactions are regulating, and therefore in the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. Concerning international law, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and concerning Mexican law, with reference to the Commerce Code and the Federal Civil Code.

Party Autonomy In Choice Of Commercial Law: The Failure Of Revised U.C.C. § 1-301 And A Proposal For Broader Reform, Jack M. Graves

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Good Faith In The Cisg: Interpretation Problems In Article 7, Benedict C. Sheehy

ExpressO

ABSTRACT: This article examines the dispute concerning the meaning of Good Faith in the CISG. Although there are good reasons for arguing a more limited interpretation or more limited application of Good Faith, there are also good reasons for a broader approach. Regardless of the correct interpretation, however, practitioners and academics need to have a sense of where the actual jurisprudence is going. This article reviews every published case on Article 7 since its inception and concludes that while there is little to suggest a strong pattern is developing, a guided pattern while incorrect doctrinally is preferable to the current …

Leaving Money On The Table: Contract Practice In A Low-Trust Environment, Ruben Kraiem

ExpressO

Social capital – the level of trust inherent in a society – will affect the contracting practices that are considered standard, practical or fair. These practices in turn will help determine the parties’ positions as they approach their negotiation, how they will communicate, and what terms they will agree in any particular transaction. This is true not only for the small transaction, but also for large and complex deals. As a result, when operating in a low-trust environment, even sophisticated parties (who can bear the costs of tailoring an agreement to their particular case), will be prone to relinquish or …

"Strangers In A Strange Land" -- Transnational Litigation, Foreign Judgment Recognition, And Enforcement In Ontario, Antonin I. Pribetic

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Contractual Stipulation For Judicial Review And Discovery In United States-Japan Arbitration Contracts, Norman T. Braslow

Seattle University Law Review

This Article discusses in detail how the arbitration process in both the United States and Japan can very often result in injustice to both parties. Part II describes how limitations on discovery can cause vital information necessary to either prosecute or defend a claim to never appear before the arbitrator. The article then discusses the possibility of including provisions that might ameliorate this problem. Next, this Part examines specific examples of situations where the arbitrators can ignore the civil rules of evidence and admit evidence that would be inadmissible in a court of law. Finally, this Part concludes with a …

Gollum, Meet Sméagol: A Schizophrenic Rumination On Mediator Values Beyond Self-Determination And Neutrality, James R. Coben

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Let me begin by declaring my biases. First, I am a dissatisfied consumer of mediation services, having represented both employment discrimination and family law clients in mediations. The mediators' rapid retreat to caucus, their tendency to incorrectly evaluate my clients' cases, and their strong push for particular settlement structures while simultaneously proclaiming process neutrality, all too frequently have left me (and my clients) disappointed and disillusioned. Second, I am a chronicler of "mediation car wrecks" - a voyeur, if you will, of those times when mediations go so badly that the parties end up disputing about them in court. Third, …

Un Enfoque Comparativo Sobre La Formacion De Los Contratos Electronicos, Roberto Rosas

Faculty Articles

Understanding the basic principles governing the formation of contracts is of paramount importance when it comes to figuring out the most appropriate to enter into a new contract or to assess the legality of a contract existing ones. While the basic rules for the forming of general contracts are applicable to most type of contracts, regardless of how they are done, there are some legal rules that apply specify to contracts concluded electronically.

Forum Selection In International Contract Litigation: The Role Of Judicial Discretion, Hannah Buxbaum

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The United States is currently involved in negotiation of the Hague Convention on Exclusive Choice of Court Agreements, which would regulate the enforceability of forum-selection clauses in international contracts. That project - as well as the recent focus in globalization literature on more active judicial management of forum selection - draws attention to one unusual aspect of U.S. jurisdictional law: that dismissal on the basis of forum non conveniens is available even in cases arising out of contracts including negotiated forum selection clauses. This article examines the resulting tension between the right of contract parties to select a forum in …

The Relative Costs Of Incorporating Trade Usage Into Domestic Versus International Sales Contracts: Comments On Clayton Gillette, Institutional Design And International Usages Under The Cisg, Avery W. Katz

Faculty Scholarship

Clayton Gillette's paper on the use of trade usage in reported disputes arising under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods ("CISG") presents a challenge to recent scholarly critiques of modern contractual interpretation. As Gillette explains, much recent writing by economically influenced US scholars in contracts and commercial law has argued in favor of more formalistic methods of interpretation, and against the overwhelming trend of the last half of the twentieth century: a trend toward a more contextual interpretative approach that takes into account a variety of evidence, including the business purpose of the transaction, …

Self-Enforcing International Agreements And The Limits Of Coercion, Robert E. Scott, Paul B. Stephan

Faculty Scholarship

International law provides an ideal context for studying the effects of freedom from coercion on cooperative behavior. To be sure, almost all academic discussions on the subject begin by asking whether international law constitutes "law." But the category of all "international law" is too big and heterogeneous to permit useful analysis. Whether to regard, say, the rules governing the conduct of war or international humanitarian law as "law" presents radically different issues than analyzing the legal character of the Treaty of Rome (the constitutive instrument of the European Community), or the Warsaw Convention (the instrument governing contracts for the carriage …

Exemptions Under Article 79 Of The Vienna Sales Convention, Peter Winship

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

“All Aboard!” An Overview Of The Continuing Debate Regarding The Enforceability Of Dispute Resolution Provisions Of Filipino Seamen Employment Contracts, Richard V. Blystone

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Unique Jurisprudence Of Letters Of Credit: Its Origin And Sources, Gao Xiang, Ross P. Buckley

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article seeks to illumine the legal nature of the letter of credit instrument, and catalogue the various sources of law and rules that can govern it; and, by doing so, render a service to those who must quickly come to grips with letter of credit law. The Article is in two parts. The first part examines the legal nature of the letter of credit by looking at its definition, operation, and history and by comparing it with negotiable instruments and contracts. The second part considers the rules, customs, and regulations governing letters of credit and introduces the two fundamental …

Contract Of Mutual (In)Difference: Government And The Humanitarian Apparatus In Contemporary Albania And Kosovo, Mariella Pandolfi

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Globalization and Governance: The Prospects for Democracy, Symposium

Anticipatory Repudiation Of Letters Of Credit, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

Letters of credit play a vital role in financing international transactions, and are becoming increasingly popular domestically as substitutes for more traditional secured financing. As such, they deserve substantially more scholarly attention than they receive outside of specialized treatises and banking trade publications. Moreover, as unilateral promises by issuers of the letters of credit to pay money to their beneficiaries, the fact that Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and pre-UCC common law recognize the right of a beneficiary to sue for anticipatory repudiation is at odds with the prevailing rule in this country that a promisee cannot sue …

A Reexamination Of Glanzer V. Shepard: Surveyors On The Tort- Contract Boundary, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

In international commodity transactions, intermediary certifiers of quantity and quality play a crucial role. Sometimes they err, and when they do, the aggrieved party can pursue remedies against the counterparty or against the intermediary, either in contract or tort. The remedy against the intermediary has depended, at least in part, on whether the plaintiff was in privity. Even absent privity, the aggrieved party could possibly recover in tort (or perhaps as a third-party beneficiary). So held Cardozo in the leading New York case Glanzer v. Shepard. Section I of this paper reviews the Glanzer litigation, with special emphasis on how …

Recovering Attorneys' Fees As Damages Under The U.N. Sales Convention (Cisg): The Role Of Case Law In The New International Commercial Practice, With Comments On Zapata Hermanos V. Hearthside Baking, Harry M. Fletcher

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The conclusion I ultimately draw is that, although the holdings of individual cases are ambiguous, as a group the relevant foreign decisions clearly sanction an award of CISG damages to cover attorneys' fees that would not normally be compensable under U.S. national law. As I discuss in Part III of the article, the firmly-established "American rule" on recovery of attorneys' fees is that, in the absence of a statutory or contractual provision to the contrary, each party to a dispute must bear his or her own attorneys' fees. A line of U.S. cases construing Article 2 of the U.C.C. strongly …

Force Majeure, China & (And) The Cisg: Is China's New Contract Law A Step In The Right Direction, Donald L. Grace

San Diego International Law Journal

This paper is designed to provide the reader with a general understanding of the force majeure clauses of both the old and new Chinese contract laws and their relation to the CISG. Section II will delve deeper into the Chinese concepts of force majeure and historical and moderns beliefs concerning excuse of performance. Section III will analyze the various provisions that apply to a force majeure event within the FECL, namely Articles 24 and 25, as well as the damage provisions relating to a force majeure event. Section IV will analyze Article 79 of the CISG; provisions pertaining to a …

The Rome Convention: The Contracting Parties' Choice, Gina M. Mcguinness

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment explores the provisions of the Rome Convention and the advantages contracting parties can benefit from through knowledge of such provisions. The main focus of this Comment is English conflict of laws rules related to contractual obligations that are governed by the Rome Convention. England and its laws on international contracts have been chosen as the appropriate subject of this Comment for the following reasons. First, because international conventions and treaties do not apply to all countries but only to those who ratify them, it is easier to see how the rules of such conventions are applied by a …

Teaching The Cisg In Contracts, William S. Dodge

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.