Contracts Commons^™

Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith Miller

Meredith R. Miller

With increasing frequency, courts are mentioning party sophistication as relevant to whether a contract has been formed, whether a contract is enforceable, how the contract should be interpreted, and even, in some instances, the determination of an appropriate remedy. Sophisticated parties are held to a different set of rules, grounded in freedom of contract. It is presumed that a sophisticated party was aware of what to bargain for and read (or should have read) and understood (or should have understood) the terms of a written agreement. But, just what do courts mean when they call a contracting party “sophisticated”? “Sophistication” …

A Pro-Congress Approach To Arbitration And Unconscionability, Stephen Friedman

Stephen E Friedman

This Essay endeavors to resolve a current controversy involving the application of the unconscionability doctrine to arbitration agreements. The pro-arbitration policies of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the anti-arbitration instincts of the unconscionability doctrine are difficult to reconcile. Instead of clarity in this area of law, we have a series of hints and clues, often contradictory, from the Supreme Court. Although Professor David Horton and I share a desire to clarify this area of the law, we have nearly opposite views about how this should be accomplished. This Essay sets forth my position and also responds to Unconscionability Wars, …

Of Textualism, Party Autonomy, And Good Faith, Michael P. Van Alstine

Michael P. Van Alstine

No abstract provided.

Análisis Económico De La Contratación Pública En Colombia: El Régimen De Contratación Estatal En Colombia Como Herramienta Para La Satisfacción Simultanea De Intereses Particulares Y Colectivos., Daniel Monroy

Daniel A Monroy C

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es evaluar si el actual estatuto de contratación pública en Colombia (Ley 80 de 1993), representa un marco regulatorio adecuado para lograr simultáneamente los fines estatales, así como para satisfacer los interés de los particulares que contratan con las diferentes entidades públicas. Se propone que la coexistencia entre los fines propios del Estado y aquellos estrechamente vinculados con el interés individual es viable, sin embargo, esta hipótesis difícilmente se puede sustentar desde la perspectiva de la economía neoclásica (la Escuela de Chicago), contrario a ello, un enfoque alternativo (v.g. el propio de la Nueva …

Presentación: Análisis Económico De La Contratación Estatal, Daniel Monroy

Daniel A Monroy C

Presentación del artículo "ANÁLISIS ECONÓMICO DE LA CONTRATACIÓN PÚBLICA EN COLOMBIA: El régimen de contratación estatal en Colombia como herramienta para la satisfacción simultanea de intereses particulares y colectivos." En el marco del coloquio ¿Qué intereses económicos protege la regulación"

Response To Reasonable Expectations In Sociocultural Context, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

The Article starts 6 (and ends)7 with the premise that contract law should enforce the reasonable expectations of the parties. This is a hard premise to challenge.8 And an even harder premise to apply.9 The Article recognizes the two problems with applying this premise: (1) how does a court decide what expectations are “reasonable,”10 and (2) what does a court do when the contracting parties have different reasonable expectations.11 The Article then uses two cases to illustrate how “sociocultural dissonance between a judge and contracting party”12 exacerbates these problems.

Análisis Crítico De La Teoría De Gabriele Faggela Sobre La Responsabilidad Precontractual: Revisitando (O Reconociendo) A Un Clásico, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Contract Law: Trends And Shifts In 2010, Dr. Yehuda Adar

Yehuda Adar Dr.

-This Article is in Hebrew- This paper presents an overview of some of the main developments in the general body of contract law in Israel during the 2009-2010 law-year and examines their possible impact on the rights of contracting parties. The author claims that these developments reflect a general pattern that characterized Israeli contract law in recent decades: On the one hand, a continuous, step-by-step progress is observed in numerous cases in which the Supreme Court introduced minor changes into existing rules or made an effort to clarify and improve the existing doctrine. Such developments are seen, for example, in …

The Reform Of The Standard Contracts Statute – A Critical Commentary, Dr. Yehuda Adar, Dr. Moshe Gelbard

Yehuda Adar Dr.

-This article is in Hebrew-

Arbitration Provisions: Little Darlings And Little Monsters, Stephen Friedman

Stephen E Friedman

This Article takes a new approach to resolving the growing tension between the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the unconscionability doctrine. While arbitration provisions are favored under the FAA, they are viewed far more skeptically by courts applying unconscionability to refuse enforcement of one-sided arbitration provisions. This tension, which has increased dramatically in recent years, represents a major fault line in contract law. Jurisprudence and commentary on this issue have assumed that courts have the authority to apply the unconscionability doctrine to arbitration provisions. This Article refutes that assumption, taking the position that Congress, in passing the FAA, removed from …

The Role Of Remedies In The Relational Theory Of Contract: A Preliminary Inquiry, Dr. Yehuda Adar, Dr. Moshe Gelbard

Yehuda Adar Dr.

One of the leading contemporary theories of contract law is the relational theory. Notwithstanding its remarkable development since the foundational works of Macaulay and Macneil it would seem reasonably fair to maintain that this body of literature has generally neglected the discussion of legal remedies. Scholarly literature pertaining to the relational theory has typically focused on extra-legal or informal devices for the regulation of long-term contractual relations, such as: consensual adjustment of primary contractual arrangements in light of changing circumstances, informal incentives for performance and cooperation, the tendency to abstain from relying on formal rights and duties, and the frequent …