Contracts Commons^™

Contingency And Contracts: A Philosophy Of Complex Business Transactions, Jeffrey Marc Lipshaw

ExpressO

In this article, I argue that the prevailing literature on contract theory does not adequately address the way real-world lawyers address uncertainty in complex business transactions. I attribute this to the constraints imposed by thinking in legal models, the dominant tendency to turn to economics for analysis and normative prescription, and the focus on adjudicative issues of hindsight interpretation. Commercial uncertainty, and the law’s response to it, is only a subset of the broader philosophical issue of contingency. As an alternative to prevailing thought, I trace philosophical approaches to contingency, utility and morality that have come down to us since …

The Bewitchment Of Intelligence: Language And Ex Post Illusions Of Intention, Jeffrey Marc Lipshaw

ExpressO

Lawyers who negotiate and litigate over complex deals have an intuitive notion of the value of what they do in connection with the contract. The arguments around technical contract language often are a lawyers’ game; in most cases, what is clear would have been clear on a handshake; and what is tightly negotiated bears only a random relationship to the areas of future dispute. If they happen to have drafted tight and clear language around the particular matter in dispute, it is as much luck as foresight. Thereafter complex agreements can have binding effect for years, but most of the …

Defective Products And Product Warranty Claims In Minnesota, J. David Prince

William Mitchell Law Review

Warranty law is an important supplement to tort law principles governing liability for defective products. Warranties arise from promises or assertions associated with either the sale of a product or some other transfer of a product for value. Such promises or assertions about a product may be express, made in the form of the seller’s statements about the qualities or attributes of the product, or they may simply be implied as a matter of policy. Although warranty law is generally regarded today as part of the body of contract law, the origins of warranty lie in tort. Important developments in …

The Doctrine Of Good Faith In Contract Law: A (Nearly) Empty Vessel?, Emily Houh

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Empty Vessel explores both the positive and normative questions of what the contractually implied obligation of good faith does and should require of contracting parties. The Article attempts to assess and evaluate the ways in which courts are currently employing the good faith doctrine in contract disputes, as part of a larger project whose goal is to re-conceive and reinvigorate the private law doctrine of good faith as one that might assist in effecting the public law norm of equality. Empty Vessel identifies two dominant theoretical approaches to how to define good faith, which I refer to as the fairness …

Losing Rights To Intellectual Property: The Perils Of Contracting With The Federal Government, Katherine White

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Critical Race Realism: Re-Claiming The Antidiscrimination Principle Through The Doctrine Of Good Faith In Contract Law, Emily Houh

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article employs what it calls "critical race realism" to theorize and propose a common law antidiscrimination claim that incorporates contemporary re-conceptualizations of antidiscrimination jurisprudence and grounds itself doctrinally not in civil rights law but in the contractually implied obligation of good faith. "Critical race realism" refers in part to this Article's explicit goal, in proposing the common law claim, to re-conceive explicitly the private law doctrine of good faith as one that might assist in effecting a public law norm of equality. By employing critical race realism, this Article hopes to help revive the controversy over what constitutes the …

Contractual Liability Of Suppliers Of Defective Software: A Comparison Of The Law Of The United Kingdom And United States, Stephen E. Blythe

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The common law of contracts has its roots in medieval England. Traditional contract law, evolved from the age of feudalism, focused on "hard copy" documents and their authentication. Today, we frequently find ourselves entering into virtual, digital contracts. Instead of signing the written document with a seal, we merely type in our name on the computer screen and click on "I accept." Should contract law be changed to accommodate the digital nature of the modem contract and, if so, to what extent should it be changed? A traditionalist may contend that there is no need to completely overhaul contract law …

My Modest Proposal, Celia R. Taylor

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This essay is modeled on Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal and traces its structure and style to argue that the use of the seal as a mechanism for establishing consideration should be returned to contract doctrine. It is a somewhat tongue-in-check treatment of the issue, but done with serious intent. Esteemed contract scholars spill much ink on the topic of the enforceability of donative promises. I suggest that the return of the seal would "free our great thinkers to turn their brilliance to topics of more pressing interest."

Automobile Leasing And The Vicarious Liability Of Lessors, Daniel J. Koevary

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Comment begins by discussing the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 388, which makes lessors vicariously liable for their cars even when they are begin leased by others, and how this led many car companies in New York to stop offering leases in the 1920's, the Comment will recommends that Section 388 be amended to exclude lessors from vicarious liability. The Comment then goes through the history of Section 388, explains what leasing is and why it is popular, looks at the recent impact of Section 388 which includes several companies have stopped leasing in New York, looks …

Erisa: State Regulation Of Insured Plans After Davila, 38 J. Marshall. L. Rev. 693 (2005), Donald T. Bogan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Squeezing Subjectivity From The Doctrine Of Unconscionability, Paul Bennett Marrow

Cleveland State Law Review

Issues of unconscionability are most often encountered in two arenas: commercial agreements and family law agreements. In the first arena this Article proposes that the analysis should focus on the impact of a suspect term on the integrity of the contracting system or to an enabling statute. If a contract term materially undermines or compromises the integrity of the system for contracting or the integrity of an enabling statute, it should be found unconscionable. In the family law arena things differ because of the substance of the relationships involved and because the need for mutual consideration is de-emphasized. Accordingly, in …

My Modest Proposal, Celia Taylor

St. Thomas Law Review

It is a melancholy object to those, who labor in the great area of contract law involving donative promises, or travel in its academic realm, when they see tribunals, courts and other dispute resolution venues, crowded with petitioners of every stripe, followed by clerks with voluminous pleadings, importuning said authorities for aid. These individuals, instead of being able to work at more venerable elements of their calling, are forced to spend time pleading with courts for sustenance for their floundering claims, that as they mature, are either granted entry in to the protective realm of contract law by contorted analysis …

Lack Of Meaningful Choice Defined: Your Job Vs. Your Right To Sue In A Judicial Forum, Sara Lingafelter

Seattle University Law Review

Mandatory arbitration agreements subvert an employee's constitutional right to a judicial forum and generally place unfair burdens on plaintiffs. An employee faced with the option of either signing a mandatory arbitration agreement or losing a job often has no meaningful choice. The Supreme Court, however, has failed to recognize first that Congress did not intend for mandatory arbitration to extend to Title VII claims and second, that employers often leave employees with no meaningful choice regarding mandatory arbitration. Nonetheless, state and federal judges are increasingly recognizing that arbitration agreements may be the product of procedural unconscionability. Accordingly, when employees are …

Symposium - Incomplete Contracts: Judicial Responses, Transactional Planning, And Litigation Strategies - Introduction, Juliet P. Kostritsky

Faculty Publications

This introduction introduces three articles in a Symposium by Richard Craswell, Avery Katz, Robert Scott and George Triantis on the topic of incomplete contracts. The Symposium appears in 56 CASE WES. L. REV. 135 (2005).

The recognition that parties will often fail to achieve completely contingent contracts that provide for an optimal outcome in any future state of the world raises the important question of what role courts could or should play in such contracts.

Scholars working in the law-and-economics tradition have suggested that courts should use a hypothetical bargain approach to incompleteness, filling in terms that are optimal (efficient) …

Inequality Of Bargaining Power, Daniel D. Barnhizer

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Sales, Keith A. Rowley, Carolyn L. Dessin, Larry T. Garvin, Robyn L. Meadows

Scholarly Works

2004 Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Sales.

Contracting Spyware By Contract, Jane K. Winn

Articles

The question of what constitutes "spyware" is controversial because many programs that are adware in the eyes of their distributors may be perceived as spyware in the eyes of the end user. Many of these programs are loaded on the computers of end users after the end user has agreed to the terms of a license presented in a click-through interface.

This paper analyzes whether it might be possible to reduce the volume of unwanted software loaded on end users' computers by applying contract law doctrine more strictly. Unwanted programs are often bundled with programs that the end user wants, …

Mercantile Stories & Postcolonial Stories-Stories Of The Code, 12 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 377 (2005), Allen R. Kamp

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"We Insist! Freedom Now": Does Contract Doctrine Have Anything Consitutional To Say?, Hila Keren

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article first exposes the detachment between contract doctrine and the scattered antidiscrimination norms and analyzes the harmful consequences of this detachment. It then creates an original meeting point between the two bodies of law, one of which is intentionally located within contract doctrine. This point is found by dismantling the dominant concept of "freedom OF contact", and especially by defining and establishing the freedom to make a contract.

A Seller's Responsibilities To Remote Purchasers For Breach Of Warranty In The Sales Of Goods Under Washington Law, Thomas J. Holdych

Seattle University Law Review

The article examines Washington law pertaining to a seller's obligations to a remote purchaser with respect to the quality of goods, attending in particular to the judicially created exceptions to the privity requirement. 20 Part II explores the reasons a seller may provide and a buyer may purchase a warranty, reasons that bear on resolution of the question whether the privity requirement should be retained. Parts III and IV analyze not only what warranty obligations a seller may have to a remote purchaser but also the theoretical bases for those obligations and the manner in which those obligations may be …

A Realistic Proposal For The Contract Duress Doctrine, Grace M. Giesel

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Trade Secrets Become Shackles: Fairness And The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine, Elizabeth A. Rowe

UF Law Faculty Publications

Critics of the inevitable disclosure doctrine decry the inconsistency with which courts rule on these cases, and the difficulty in predicting case outcomes. They contend that courts are left to "grapple with a decidedly ... nebulous standard of 'inevitability."' Further, they claim the doctrine undermines the employee's fundamental right to move freely and pursue his or her livelihood.

Ultimately, both the problem and solution here are about fairness: fairness in the employer-employee relationship, fairness in the application of the law, and fairness in providing protection from unfair competition between competing employers. The crux of the opposition to the doctrine, in …

The Contract Drafting Process: Integrating Contract Drafting In A Simulated Law Practice, Charles C. Lewis

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Financial Contracts And The New Bankruptcy Code: Insulating Markets From Bankrupt Debtors And Bankruptcy Judges, Edward R. Morrison, Joerg Riegel

Faculty Scholarship

The reforms of 2005 yield important but subtle changes in the Bankruptcy Code's treatment of financial contracts. They might appear only to eliminate longstanding uncertainty surrounding the protections available to financial contract counterparties, especially counterparties to repurchase transactions and other derivative contracts. But the ambit of the reforms is much broader. The expanded definitions – especially the definition of "swap agreement" – are now so broad that nearly every derivative contract is subject to the Code's protection. Instead of protecting particular counterparties to particular transactions, the Code now protects any counterparty to any derivative contract. Entire markets have been insulated …

From Imperial China To Cyberspace: Contracting Without The State, David D. Friedman

Faculty Publications

In 1895, as part of the treaty of Shimonoseki, China ceded the island of Taiwan to Japan. The Japanese government wished to maintain the existing legal system; in order to do so it had to discover what that legal system was.

One feature of that legal system was the combination of elaborate contractual practice with an almost total absence of contract law. Imperial China had no equivalent of our civil lawsuits. A merchant who had sold goods on credit and not been paid could, if he wished, report his debtor to the district magistrate for the crime of swindling him-but …

Contemplating A Civil Law Paradigm For A Future International Commercial Code, Wayne R. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The international community has worked toward a global law of contracts for the last century. These efforts include the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, the Uniform Law on the Formation of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law, and the Vienna Convention for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). These texts are all tremendous achievements in their own right. However, they reflect a delicate juxtaposition of the two primary legal systems of the world --- the civil law and the common law. A consequence …

Joseph Baxendale, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The defendant in the great case of Hadley v. Baxendale is Joseph Baxendale, managing partner of Pickford and Co., the common carrier that delayed the delivery of the Hadley's shaft. Baxendale was named the defendant, because Pickfords was a partnership and did not incorporate until 1901. Joseph Baxendale was born in 1785, the son of a Lancastershire surgeon. In 1806, he moved to London, where he worked for a wholesale linen draper. Later, he became a partner in that firm, and developed the managerial and accounting skills that would serve him so well at Pickfords.

Rediscovering Williston, Mark L. Movsesian

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article is an intellectual history of classical contracts scholar Samuel Williston. Professor Movsesian argues that the conventional account of Williston's jurisprudence presents an incomplete and distorted picture. While much of Williston 's work can strike a contemporary reader as arid and conceptual, there are strong elements of pragmatism as well. Williston insists that doctrine be justified in terms of real-world consequences, maintains that rules can have only presumptive force, and offers institutional explanations for judicial restraint. As a result, his scholarship shares more in common with today's new formalism than commonly supposed. Even the undertheorized quality of Williston 's …

Naked Before The Law: Reality Porn And The Capacity To Contract, Benjamin J. Cooper

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the legal challenges surrounding reality pornography, particularly through the lens of the Girls Gone Wild series, highlighting the tension between First Amendment protections for producers and the rights of participants. It argues that the legal framework governing consent, exploitation, and contractual agreements in this context is unclear and often fails to protect participants, many of whom face severe consequences. The analysis underscores the complexities of balancing public interest, contractual capacity, and the rights of minors in this lucrative yet legally fraught industry.

The Bewitchment Of Intelligence: Language And Ex Post Illusions Of Intention, Jeffrey M. Lipshaw

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Lawyers who negotiate and litigate over complex deals have an intuitive notion of the value of what they do in connection with the contract. The arguments around technical contract language often are a lawyers' game; in most cases, what is clear would have been clear on a handshake; and what is tightly negotiated bears only a random relationship to the areas of future dispute. If they happen to have drafted tight and clear language around the particular matter in dispute, it is as much luck as foresight. Thereafter complex agreements can have binding effect for years, but most of the …