Contracts Commons^™

Contract Law And Decisions On Costs, Marco Stacher

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

The national statutes on international commercial arbitration, the leges arbitri, do, as a rule, not contain provisions on costs. In the final award, an arbitrator has to determine the costs of the arbitration (the fees of the arbitral tribunals, of expert witnesses mandated by the arbitral tribunal etc.), which cost incurred by the parties during the arbitration are recoverable and which party has to bear what share of the costs. A decision on these issues forms part of the ordinary course of an arbitration. Further cost-related issues may arise due to the peculiarities of the case, such as a refusal …

Civil Rights Liability Of Private Entities, Barbara Kritchevsky

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Ex-Ante View Of The Battle Of The Forms: Inducing Parties To Draft Reasonable Terms, Omri Ben-Shahar

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

This paper focuses on one type of ex-ante effect of the battle of the forms: the incentive to draft reasonable boilerplate terms. It argues that the experience with the battle-of-the-forms rule under the CISG reinforces what we already know, that existing legal solutions do not provide any incentive for the parties to draft reasonable forms. The paper suggests that the goal of inducing parties to draft reasonable terms can be significantly promoted by a third rule, a variant of the “best-shot” rule proposed by Victor Goldberg. Under the version labeled the “reasonable-shot” rule, the court would resolve the battle of …

Ethics And Professional Responsibility—Contingency Fees—An Attorney's Right Of Recovery When Discharged From A Contingent Fee Contract In Arkansas. Salmon V. Atkinson, 355 Ark., 137 S.W.3d 383 (2003), Eric C. Freeby

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Selected North Carolina Contractual Provisions, Mary Wright

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making A Statement Without Saying A Word: What Implied Covenants Say When The Lease Is Silent On Post-Production Costs, R. Cordell Pierce

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Small Business And The False Dichotomies Of Contract Law, Larry Garvin

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

The article explores the classic consumer- merchant dichotomy from the vantage of small businesses. Using empirical data and the psychology, economics, and management literature, it shows that small businesses, treated like large businesses throughout most of contract and commercial law, in fact behave more like consumers. Small businesses lack the financial strength of large businesses. They generally lack the information gathering ability of large businesses. Finally, they generally are more prey to cognitive errors than are large businesses. As a result, small businesses lose in two ways. When they deal with consumers, they are presumed to have the power, information, …

Limitation Of Liability Clauses In Public Utility Tariffs: Is The Rationale For State-Sponsored Indemnity Still Valid?, John L. Rudy

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Archer V. Warner: Circuit Split Resolution Or Contractual Quagmire?, Jennifer R. Belcher

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

A State's Power To Enter Into A Consent Decree That Violates State Law Provisions: What "Findings" Of A Federal Violation Are Sufficient To Justify A Consent Decree That Trumps State Law?, David W. Swift

ExpressO

In the last forty years federal courts have played a prominent role in reshaping our public institutions. And while some scholars question the efficacy of these structural injuctions, the authority of federal courts to order such relief is generally unquestioned. What is open to debate, however, is whether state officials can agree to a remedy they would not have had the authority to order themselves; and if so, to what extent must an underlying constitutional violation be proved so as to justify the remedy?

This article discusses the competing theories and concludes that a remedy that violates state law may …

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 …

Dead Men Telling Tales - A Policy-Based Proposal For Survivability Of Qui Tam Actions Under The Civil False Claims Act, Vickie J. Williams

ExpressO

The civil False Claims Act is a powerful tool used by both the federal government and private citizens, under the statutes "qui tam" or "whistleblower" provisions, to fight fraud against the government. Use of the statute has continually risen in recent years, and recoveries under the statute are in the billions of dollars. The unique relationship between a private citizen whistleblower and the government who both have an interest in the case raises many interesting procedural and substantive issues of federal law. This article proposes an answer to one of these questions. The article proposes that a whistleblower suit survives …

Textual Harassment: A New Historicist Reappraisal With Gender In Mind, Hila Keren

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The End Of Notice: Secrets And Liens In Commercial Finance Law, Jonathan C. Lipson

ExpressO

This article explores important recent changes in the way that we treat personal property in commercial finance transactions. Among other things, these changes reduce or eliminate the obligation to give notice of interests in personal property when it is used in commercial finance transactions (as, e.g., collateral for a loan).

A principal purpose of notice-filing has been to deter the creation of secret liens, interests in property that are neither recorded nor otherwise readily observable. Secret liens are universally castigated as abhorrent.

Yet, two recent sets of legislative developments suggest that we may care much less about the problem of …

Textual Harassment: A New Historicist Reappraisal, Hila Keren

ExpressO

This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the Parol Evidence Rule, the rule that dictates that the interpretation of a written contract should be determined solely according to its text and not influenced by prior contradictory external information. This article uses the occasion to offer a fresh interdisciplinary view of the Rule. The analysis presents a unique contribution to the heated debate regarding the desired levels of formalism and textualism in present-day contract law, by using New-Historicist tools.

Unexplored aspects of the roots of the Rule are illuminated through an in-depth investigation of the first case of the contractual …

International Electronic Contracts: A Note On Argentine Choice Of Law Rules, Mario J. A. Oyarzábal

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Death Of Offers, Val D. Ricks

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Lean And Green? Environmental Law And Policy And The Flexible Production Economy, Dennis D. Hirsch

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Enriching The Contracts Course, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Complex Context Of Contract Law, Alberto Salazar Valle

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Thinking Like A Deal Lawyer, Tina L. Stark

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

A Goode Judge Is Hard To Find: An Essay On Legal Realism And Law School Casebooks, Thomas Hayes

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Bell V. Leven, 120 Nev. Adv. Rep. 43, Jeff Hall

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

Development Agreements: Bargained For Zoning That Is Neither Illegal Contract Or Conditional Zoning, Shelby Green

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Limiting The Autonomy Of Cooperative Apartment Corporation Governing Boards, John L. Barone

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article argues that proposed legislation requiring cooperative apartment corporation governing boards to provide written explanations for rejecting applicants undermines the business judgment rule, which protects boards' autonomy as long as they act in good faith. This rule, supported by cases like Levandusky v. One Fifth Avenue Apartment Corp. and Weisner v. 791 Park Avenue Corp., shields boards from liability unless bad faith or discrimination is shown. The article contends that the legislation would erode this protection, potentially leading to increased litigation and weaker governance.

Why Don't Doctors & Lawyers (Strangers In The Night) Get Their Act Together?, Frances H. Miller

Michigan Law Review

Health care in America is an expensive, complicated, inefficient, tangled mess - everybody says so. Patients decry its complexity, health care executives bemoan its lack of coherence, physicians plead for universal coverage to simplify their lives so they can just get on with taking care of patients, and everyone complains about health care costs. The best health care in the world is theoretically available here, but we deliver and pay for it in some of the world's worst ways. Occam's razor ("Among competing hypotheses, favor the simplest one") is of little help here. There are no simple hypotheses - everything …

Medical Malpractice And Contract Disclosure: An Equilibrium Model Of The Effects Of Legal Rules On Behavior In Health Care Markets, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

This paper develops a theoretical model of how specific legal rules affect the types of contracts managed care organizations ("MCOs") use to compensate physicians. In addition, the analysis provides insights into how physician treatment decisions and the rate of medical malpractice lawsuits react to different legal rules. In particular, the model predicts that outcomes in jurisdictions forcing MCOs to disclose physician contract terms to patients differ from those that do not. Contracts vary depending on the disclosure rule and how treatment costs relate to expected damages and litigation costs. Moreover, the model predicts that jurisdictions forcing contract disclosure observe higher …

The Goals Of Contract Remedies, Mark P. Gergen

ExpressO

This article offers a general account of the rules that regulate exit and loyalty in contract disputes to make some fundamental points about the goals of contract remedies. The dominant goal of these rules, like all of contract remedies, is vindicating contracting rights. When contract rights give way it is almost always for one of two reasons. Rights sometimes give way to advance the goal of efficient performance. This goal is familiarly expressed by the mitigation principle and, in American contract law, by the theory of efficient breach. Rights also give way to advance the goal of remedial simplicity. In …

The Responsible Thing To Do About "Responsible Party" Provisions In Nursing Home Agreements: A Proposal For Change On Three Fronts, Katherine C. Pearson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Nursing homes routinely seek the signature of a family member on nursing home agreements, calling the signer a "responsible party" or sponsor for the resident. Federal Medicare and Medicaid law provides that participating facilities must "not require a third party guarantee of payment to the facility as a condition of admission ...to, or continued stay, in the facility. "Nonetheless, if federal benefits prove to be unavailable, courts are holding responsible parties contractually liable for thousands of dollars for the care of their elders. This Article proposes private and public responses to the increasing likelihood that nursing homes will seek collection …

Mediation And The Transformation Of American Labor Unions, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

First, the Article analyzes in more detail the changes in the workplace that have led to various proposals for reform. Then the Article looks at the potential for mediation of claims that do not arise out of the collective bargaining agreement, analyzing the possible benefits from the point of view of employers, employees and unions. Next, some of the issues and obstacles to mediation are reviewed. Ultimately the Article concludes that the benefits of mediation outweigh the disadvantages and that in most collective bargaining relationships the obstacles should not prevent either negotiation of such provisions or their successful use for …