Contracts Commons^™

Placid, Clear-Seeming Words: Some Realism About The New Formalism (With Particular Attention To Promissory Estoppel), Sidney Delong

Faculty Articles

This Article examines the recent doctrinal shift from realist jurisprudence to the “new formalism” as it arises in the creation of contract obligation. Many recent decisions involving promissory estoppel appear to display a trend away from reliance protection in the commercial world. While these decisions are formalist insofar as they favor textual forms over contextual forms, the Author argues that this trend is more properly characterized as a realist effort. This Article examines promissory estoppel in the commercial world and suggests that the “new formalism”, driven by the most “realist” of motives, will expunge liability for promissory estoppel in the …

Preserving The Collaborative Spirit Of American Theater: The Need For A "Joint Authorship Default Rule" In Light Of The Rent Decision's Unanswered Question, Paulette S. Fox

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rationalising Restitutionary Damages In Contract Law: An Elusive Or Illusory Ques, Andrew Phang, Pey Woan Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The present article surveys various issues in the law relating to the award of restitutionary damages in contract law, utilising as its point of focus the recent House of Lords decision in Attorney-General v Blake. It explores, in particular, two possible (albeit quite different) routes towards the recovery of such damages; the first based on the (more traditional) compensatory basis and the second on the (more controversial) restitutionary basis for disgorgement of the defendant's gain. While we argue that there is, on a more general level, no overriding objection in principle to the award of restitutionary damages for cynical breach …

The Methodological Commitments Of Contemporary Contract Theory, Jody S. Kraus

Faculty Scholarship

Autonomy and economic theories of contract seem to provide incompatible accounts of contract law. In this Chapter, I argue that what appear to be first-order disagreements over particular contract doctrines are really implicit second-order disagreements reflecting the divergent methodological commitments of autonomy and economic theories. I argue that autonomy theories accord priority to the normative project of justifying existing contract doctrine, treat contract law as consisting in the plain meaning of doctrine, require contract theory to explain the distinctive character of contract law, and take the ex post perspective in adjudication. In contrast, economic theories accord priority to the positive …

The Property/Contract Interface, Thomas W. Merrill, Henry E. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the distinction between in personam contract rights and in rem property rights. It presents a functional explanation for why the legal system utilizes these two modalities of rights, grounded in the pattern of information costs associated with each modality. To test this theory, the Article examines four legal institutions that fall along the property/contract interface – bailments, landlord-tenant law, security interests, and trusts – in order to determine how the legal doctrine varies as the underlying situation shifts from in personam, to in rem, to certain relations intermediate between these poles. With respect to each institution, we …

Is Article 2 The Best We Can Do?, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

You will all be happy to know that, haying listened to my colleagues for the last three hours, I have completely forgotten what I was planning to say. But I haven't forgotten why I am here. I am the proverbial skunk at the garden party, and I hope to fulfill my role as the only skeptic in the group. I must tell you candidly, however, that I agree with everything Gail Hillebrand had to say. That doesn't mean she is going to agree with anything that I have to say, but perhaps there are two skeptics here this afternoon.

My …

A Brief History Of Anticipatory Repudiation In American Contract Law, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

This article traces the evolution of the doctrine of anticipatory repudiation from its foundations laid years before the landmark case of Hochster v. De la Tour, 118 Eng. Rep. 922 (Q.B. 1853), through Hochster, its growing acceptance by American courts in the late-1800s and early-1900s, its canonization in the first Restatement of Contracts (despite the Restatement's principal Reporter's personal objections to the doctrine), its codification in the Uniform Commercial Code, its standardization in the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and its inclusion in the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This article devotes considerable attention not only …

Reinventing The Deal: A Sequential Approach To Analyzing Claims For Enforcement Of Modified Sales Contracts, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article considers whether providing additional content to the concept of good faith in the area of contract modification is possible or desirable. The article explores the modification puzzle and the issues of erratic justice that result from the nebulous nature of the UCC test, and evaluates an alternative test (the sequential approach) that scrutinizes each step of the modification process and imports the standard of reasonable grounds into this context.

Part II discusses terminology and fundamental concepts in this area of law, including the reasons for seeking a modification, the steps of a modification, and the typical defense to …

New Horizons In Cartel Detection, Jonathan Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Language And Formalities In Commercial Contracts: A Defense Of Custom And Conduct, David V. Snyder

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article defends the decision to retain usage of trade, course of performance, and course of dealing in the revision of Article 1 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The article responds to recent neoformalist criticisms of the incorporation approach and offers a theoretical justification. Usage of trade and course of dealing should be understood as part of the parties' language, following Wittgenstein's understanding of language. Course of performance, which presents a weaker case in terms of language, should be understood as a legal formality, following Fuller's explanation of formalities. Thus understood, custom and conduct can be as important as written …

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.

Sovereign Immunity: Should The Sovereign Control The Purse?, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.

Precontractual Reliance, Lucian A. Bebchuk, Omri Ben-Shahar

Articles

During contractual negotiations, parties often make reliance expenditures that would increase the surplus should a contract be made. This paper analyzes decisions to invest in precontractual reliance under alternative legal regimes. Investments in reliance will be socially suboptimal in the absence of any precontractual liability-and will be socially excessive under strict liability for all reliance expenditures. Given the results for these polar cases, we focus on exploring how "intermediate"-liability rules could be best designed to induce efficient reliance decisions. One of our results indicates that the case for liability is shown to be stronger when a party retracts from terms …

Good Faith And The Cooperative Antagonist (Symposium On Revised Article 1 And Proposed Revised Article 2 Of The Uniform Commercial Code), James J. White

Articles

One of Karl Llewellyn's most noted achievements in the Uniform Commercial Code was to impose the duty of good faith on every obligation under the Uniform Commercial Code.1 Some (I am one) have privately thought that imposition of this unmeasurable, undefinable duty was Llewellyn's cruelest trick, but no court, nor any academic writer, has ever been so bold or so gauche as to suggest that good faith should not attend the obligations of parties under the UCC. Notwithstanding this silent indorsement of the duty of good faith, the courts2 and commentators3 have had difficulty in determining what is and what …

Contracting With Electronic Agents, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.

Journal Articles

Established contract doctrine provides no clear answer to the question whether exchanges arranged by the interaction of electronic agents are enforceable. This Article explores whether the law should enforce exchanges arranged by the interaction of electronic agents. It examine how normative theories of contractual obligation inform the issue, with an eye toward the strengths and weaknesses of each theory. The theories that most strongly support the enforcement of exchanges arranged by electronic agents, this Article explains, are those that ground contractual obligation in protecting the ability of individuals to pursue their reasonable objectives through reliable arrangements.

Nachfrist Was Ist? Thinking Globally And Acting Locally: Considering Time Extension Principles Of The U.N. Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods In Revising The Uniform Commercial Code, John C. Duncan Jr.

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Business Partners As Fiduciaries: Reflections On The Limits Of Doctrine, Robert W. Hillman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Harmful Remedies: Optimal Reformation Of Anticompetitive Contracts, Michal S. Gal

Cardozo Law Review

Current law and economics literature identifies two main types of errors courts can make in applying antitrust law. Courts may erroneously label conduct as anticompetitive even though competition is not harmed. Alternatively, courts may fail to identify, and thus fail to attack, anticompetitive conduct. This Article focuses on a third possible error - where a court correctly identifies anticompetitive conduct, but its mode of interference, i.e., its prescribed remedy, harms competition. It analyzes this error in the context of anticompetitive contract reformation. Such error occurs, for example, where a court has chosen one reformation option that is less efficient and …

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 …

Humans, Computers, And Binding Commitment, Margaret Jane Radin

Indiana Law Journal

Addison C. Harris Lecture at the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on October 26, 1999.

Approaches To Teaching Contracts: Enriching Case Reports, Robert A. Hillman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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.

The Consequences Of Doj Control Of Litigation On Agencies' Programs, Michael E. Herz, Neal Devins

Articles

No abstract provided.

Motherhood And Contract: Always Crashing In The Same Car, Elise Bruhl

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Newsletter Vol.25 No.1 2000, National Center For The Study Of Collective Bargaining In Higher Education And The Professions

National Center Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming The "Creatures Of The State": Contracting For Child Custody Decisionmaking In The Best Interests Of The Family, E. Gary Spitko

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aes Systems V. Sa'ar, Aharon Barak, Eliezer Rivlin, Theodor Or

Translated Opinions

Facts: Appellant No.1 developed independent computer word processing systems. Appellant no. 2 was the exclusive distributer of the systems in Israel, and also provided its customers in Israel with maintenance and repair services. The respondent had been an employed by the appellant as a computer technician, and had at the time of his employment, signed both an agreement not to compete with the appellant in anything related to the marketing and repair of Linear systems, as well as an “Agreement to Protect Confidentiality,” according to which he was obligated to maintain the absolute confidentiality of information that he may obtain …

Customized Marriage, James Herbie Difonzo

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Growth In Colorado And The West: Trends And Issues [Outline], James N. Corbridge Jr.

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

4 pages.

Contains references.