Contracts Commons^™

Sovereign Bonds And The Collective Will, Lee C. Buchheit, G. Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of Promissory Estoppel Or Is Promissory Estoppel Really As Unsuccessful As Scholars Say It Is: A New Look At The Data, Juliet P. Kostritsky

Faculty Publications

This article makes important contributions to the field of empirical promissory estoppel scholarship. First it challenges recent empirical scholarship (by Professors Robert Hillman and Sidney De Long in the 1998 and 1997 Columbia and Wisconsin law reviews). Their scholarship had challenged the view of the vast majority of American Contracts scholarship by proclaiming promissory estoppel to be an unimportant doctrine based on low win rates of tried cases. My article challenges this new orthodoxy based on a comprehensive five year survey of cases. It concludes that it is too soon to announce the death of promissory estoppel and that promissory …

Two Cheers For Freedom Of Contract, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

Once, they say, freedom of contract reigned in American law. Parties could make agreements on a wide variety of subjects and choose the terms they wished. Courts would refrain from questioning the substance of bargains and would ensure only that parties had observed the proper formalities. In interpretation, objectivity was paramount. Courts would seek to ascertain, not what the parties had intended, but what a reasonable observer would understand the parties' words to mean. Contract law was a series of abstractions informed by individual autonomy and judicial deference.

This world, a classical paradise of doctrines with sharp corners, began to …

Consenting To Form Contracts, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay, I will identify one theoretical source of the common antipathy towards form contracts and why it is misguided. I contend that the hostility towards form contracts stems in important part from an implicit adoption of a promise-based conception of contractual obligation. I shall maintain that, when one adopts (a) a consent theory of contract based not on promise but on the manifested intention to be legally bound and (b) a properly objective interpretation of this consent, form contracts can be seen as entirely legitimate-though some form terms may properly be subject to judicial scrutiny that would be …

Contracts-Breach Distinguished From Rescission

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Contract Reconceived, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Preventing The Birth Of Drug-Addicted Babies Through Contract: An Examination Of The C.R.A.C.K. Organization, Juli Horka-Ruiz

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Finding Fault With Wonnell's "Two Contractual Wrongs", George M. Cohen

San Diego Law Review

Professor Christopher Wonnell's excellent paper, Expectation, Reliance, and the Two Contractual Wrongs,' makes two basic points,

both of which I find convincing, but neither of which contract scholars generally appreciate and accept. The first point, largely descriptive and so less controversial, is that the concepts of expectation and reliance are not simply two different ways of conceiving compensation; rather, they are two different ways of conceiving contractual wrongs from both a moral and an economic perspective.2 From a moral perspective, expectation damages remedy the wrong of breaching a contractual promise that should have been performed. Reliance damages remedy the wrong …

The Promise Of Certainty In The Law Of Pre-Incorporation Contracts, Poonam Puri

Articles & Book Chapters

In practice, most pre-incorporation contracts cause no difficulty for the parties who intend to benefit directly from them. In the normal course of events, once the corporation is incorporated, both the corporation and the third party perform on the contract: However, when the corporation does not come into existence, or comes into existence but refuses to adopt a contract, difficult legal issues arise in relation to the rights and liabilities of the parties? In these situations, the following questions must be -resolved: To what extent is the promoter liable on,the contract? To what extent is the corporation liable on the …

Contracting On The Web: Collegiate Athletes And Sports Agents Confront A New Hurdle In Closing The Deal, Manpreet S. Dhanjal

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Remedies For Imperfect Transactions In Contracts And Torts, David W. Barnes

San Diego Law Review

The papers by Professors DeLong, Wonnell, and Kelly in this Symposium address different types of imperfect transactions. Promises that are the subject of section 90 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts are imperfect in the sense that they lack consideration or are disclaimed in subsequent, formalized, written contracts.' Section 90 authorizes courts to find remedies for reasonable but fruitless expenditures induced by parties who make promises on which they should reasonably expect others to rely.2 Professor DeLong decries courts' formalist strategies for enforcing disclaimers that eliminate these promisors' potential liability for intentionally imperfect transactions.' Taking Professor DeLong's analysis of imperfect …

Tortious Interference And The Law Of Contract: The Case For Specific Performance Revisited, Deepa Varadarajan

Faculty Publications

What is the role of contract law in remedying breach? The question of the appropriate legal remedy, specific performance versus money damages, has provided adequate fodder for three decades of debate in the law and economics discourse. In the legal discipline at large, the topic has spurred centuries of debate, as illustrated by Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous line: “The only universal consequence of a legally binding promise is, that the law makes the promisor pay damages if the promised event does not come to pass.” Holmes's approach to contractual remedy would evolve during the latter half of the twentieth century …

The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd. V. United International Holdings, Inc.: The Supreme Court Breaks Old Ground, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

This article analyzes the Supreme Court's decision to decide only one federal securities law case, The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd. v. United International Holdings, Inc. On the face of it, the Court simply affirmed long-standing, uncontroversial tenets of Rule 10b-5. However, the article provides different explanations to the Court's decision.

Foreword: Is Reliance Still Dead?, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

One thing I found out when I was a prosecutor is that you should never tell a police officer he cannot do something, for that just serves as an open invitation for him to do it. In recent years, I have learned a similar lesson about legal scholarship which I should probably keep to myself but won't. If you proclaim the existence of a scholarly "consensus," this is an open invitation for academics to try to demolish such a claim.

Just Say The "Magic Words": Advocating An Arbitration Clause Should Be Held To An Express Waiver Standard For The Doctrine Of Indian Sovereign Immunity--C&L Enterprises V. Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe, Jeremy Clinefelter

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Contracts From A Socioeconomic Perspective, Jeffrey L. Harrison

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay begins with a brief discussion of what socioeconomics is. In this section I also address whether one must be well versed in conventional economics in order to apply a socioeconomic perspective. I then discuss the basic themes that are present throughout my contracts class that stem from my interest in socioeconomics. Underlying these themes is the more fundamental goal of devising methodologies for assessing the quality of contracts. By quality, I mean something more and perhaps more subtle than whether the parties have conformed to all the formal requirements. Instead, I encourage students to examine whether all of …

Reconsidering The Reliance Interest, Christopher W. Frost

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This essay discusses the place of Fuller and Perdue's The Reliance Interest in Contract Damages in the contracts classroom. After first describing my use of The Reliance Interest, I will set out what I consider to be the pedagogical benefits of beginning the course with remedies and the attractiveness of Fuller and Perdue's analytical model in conveying an understanding of the remedial structure. Next, I will discuss the views of critics Craswell, Kelly and Barnes. Finally, I will revisit the place of Fuller and Perdue's work in the contracts course in light of these criticisms.

Post Claim Underwriting, Thomas C. Cady, Georgia Lee Gates

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gap-Filling And Freedom Of Contract, Shumei Lu

LLM Theses and Essays

When a client asks his lawyer what his duties are under a particular contract, normally the lawyer’s first response is “show me the contract.” Does the contract provide all the contract duties in its expressed form? Definitely not. By now everyone acknowledges that, to some extent, all contracts have some gaps. Even the most carefully drafted document rests on volumes of assumptions that cannot be explicitly expressed.1 The inevitability of gaps reflects both our “relative ignorance of fact” and “our relative indeterminacy of aim.” Generally speaking, there are three types of gaps: first, the parties to a contract have not …

Kingsfield Doesn't Teach My Contracts Class: Using Contracts To Teach Contracts, Edith R. Warkentine

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Promises And Paternalism, E. Allan Farnsworth

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contracts-Offer And Acceptance-Lapse Of Offer

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

(Baby) M Is For The Many Things: Why I Start With Baby M, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

For several years now I have begun my first-year contracts course with the 1988 New Jersey Supreme Court case In the Matter of Baby M. In this essay, I want to explain why. I offer the explanation in the spirit of modest proselytizing, recognizing that many of us already have a favored method or manner into the course: some introductory questions we pose before leaping into (or over) the introductions already provided by the editors of the many excellent casebooks available. But I have found that Baby M works extremely well in ways that others may want to consider. …

When Should Contract Law Supply A Liability Rule Or Term?: Framing A Principle Of Unification For Contracts, Juliet P. Kostritsky

Faculty Publications

To demonstrate the need for a unified instrumental framework for deciding gaps and implying liability rules, Part II of this Article will first describe the competing visions of the role of law in contract gap-filling. Although each vision has expanded the ways in which we think about contracts and has offered more realistic models of bargaining, each still fails to offer a unified framework for deciding how courts should decide *1290 incomplete contracts. Part III of the Article outlines the methodological framework for unifying judicial approaches to law-supplied terms or rules. The framework will incorporate a: (1) realistic model of …

Preface To The Gateway Thread, Deborah W. Post

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Guarantying A Hit (Or Miss): Understanding The Completion Guaranty Business In Hollywood, James W. Coupe

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Titanic was. So was Waterworld. Heck, even The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was. Blockbusters? No. Oscar winners? Wrong again. Yet these three films do share one unfortunate characteristic-- each of these pictures was over budget, drastically in some cases. Although caused by different forces and cured by different individuals, each film eventually forced someone to pay a great deal of money unexpectedly. Like many unforeseen expenses, these too can be insured against. Enter stage right, a completion guaranty company.

Any and all film productions financed by non-producer third parties should have a completion guaranty. In the most fundamental terms, a …

Regret And Contract "Science", Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Deshet V. Eliyahu, Shlomo Levin, Jacob Turkel, Eliahu Mazza

Translated Opinions

Facts: The deceased left a will devising his estate to his sons, to be distributed among them only after the death of their mother. The sons renounced their gift under the will and, together with their mother and sister (who had not been provided for in the will), sought to inherit their intestate share by law. The executrices of the will objected.

Held: Justice Levin, with Justice Turkel concurring, held that the sons’ renunciation was clearly designed to frustrate the condition set by the will for their inheritance, namely that they would inherit only after their mother’s death. As a …

Franchisor Liability For The Torts Of Its Franchisees: The Case For Substituting Liability As A Guarantor For The Current Vicarious Liability, John L. Hanks

Articles

The author reviews the justifications for applying the law of vicarious liability in the franchising context and concludes that its application is often inefficient and arbitrary. He argues that the employee-independent contractor dichotomy used by courts to determine franchisor liability is not well-suited to franchising, where the relationship encompasses both concepts. He proposes that vicarious liability not be applied in the franchising context. Instead, the courts by case law or state legislatures by statute should impose a guarantor status on franchisors that would expose them to liability for the torts of the franchisees only if the franchisee was unavailable to …