Blues Lives: Promise And Perils Of Musical Copyright,
2010
Northwestern University School of Law
Blues Lives: Promise And Perils Of Musical Copyright, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The Reverse-Morals Clause: The Unique Way To Save Talent's Reputation And Money In A New Era Of Corporate Crimes And Scandals,
2010
University of Richmond
The Reverse-Morals Clause: The Unique Way To Save Talent's Reputation And Money In A New Era Of Corporate Crimes And Scandals, Porcher L. Taylor Iii, Fernando M. Pinguelo, Timothy D. Cedrone
Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal
No abstract provided.
All Dogs Go To Heaven... Or Divorce Court: New Jersey Unleashes A Subjective Value Consideration To Resolve Pet Custody Litigation In Houseman V. Dare,
2010
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
All Dogs Go To Heaven... Or Divorce Court: New Jersey Unleashes A Subjective Value Consideration To Resolve Pet Custody Litigation In Houseman V. Dare, Eric Kotloff
Villanova Law Review (1956 - )
No abstract provided.
Excuse Doctrine: The Eisenberg Uncertainty Principle,
2010
Columbia Law School
Excuse Doctrine: The Eisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Victor P. Goldberg
Faculty Scholarship
The world is in a bit of a mess. Oil prices soared to more than $140 per barrel and within months plummeted to below $40. The pound fell from $2 to less than $1.40. Housing and stock prices crashed. Foreclosures, bankruptcies, and bailouts became newspaper staples. When things go awry like this, inevitably many people and firms regret having entered into contracts under more favorable circumstances. Many of them will be looking for ways to limit, or better yet, avoid the consequences. A preeminent contracts scholar, Melvin Eisenberg (2009), has provided them with considerable ammunition in a recent paper, arguing …
Hoffman V. Red Owl Stores And The Limits Of The Legal Method,
2010
Columbia Law School
Hoffman V. Red Owl Stores And The Limits Of The Legal Method, Robert E. Scott
Faculty Scholarship
According to the overwhelming majority view, promissory estoppel is not an appropriate ground for legally enforcing statements made during preliminary negotiations unless there is a “clear and unambiguous promise” on which the counterparty reasonably and foreseeably relies. Bill Whitford and Stewart Macaulay were among the first scholars to note the apparent absence of such a promise in the case of Hoffman v. Red Owl Stores. Several years ago, after studying the trial record, I concluded that the best explanation for the breakdown in negotiations was the fundamental misunderstanding between the parties as to the amount and nature of Hoffmann’s …
At The Brink Of Free Agency: Creating The Foundation For The Messersmith-Mcnally Decision - 1968-1975,
2010
Notre Dame Law School
At The Brink Of Free Agency: Creating The Foundation For The Messersmith-Mcnally Decision - 1968-1975, Edmund P. Edmonds
Journal Articles
"One of the most dramatic periods in baseball’s long history of labor relations occurred from 1968 through 1975. The Major League Baseball Players Association negotiated baseball’s first Basic Agreement in 1968 without the benefit of any leverage that could alter most of Organized Baseball’s long practices that controlled the players’ mobility and wages. In 1975, however, the union won an arbitration panel hearing that determined that pitchers Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith were free agents after playing one full season under the renewed option year of their contracts and filing a grievance under the newly adopted arbitration process. This stunning …
Informed Choices And Uniform Decisions: Adopting The Aba's Self-Enforcing Administrative Model To Ensure Successful Surrogacy Arrangements,
2010
Southwestern Law School
Informed Choices And Uniform Decisions: Adopting The Aba's Self-Enforcing Administrative Model To Ensure Successful Surrogacy Arrangements, Christine Metteer Lorillard
Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice
Non-traditional families are on the rise in America today, with more and more same-sex couples raising families together. Yet, all same-sex partners seeking to become parents must make use of some assisted reproductive technique ("ART'), as must some heterosexual married couples. Despite the growing number of people who want to create families, including those that resort to ARTs to have genetically-related children, there are significant moral, economic, and legal obstacles in their way. What has long been needed is a codified roadmap for a successful surrogacy agreement that delineates the rights and obligations of the parties involved, as well as …
When Selling Your Personal Name Mark Extends To Selling Your Soul,
2010
Saint Louis University School of Law
When Selling Your Personal Name Mark Extends To Selling Your Soul, Yvette Joy Liebesman
All Faculty Scholarship
Identifying one’s business with one’s personal name has long been a practice in the United States. As Personal Name Marks have become increasingly commodified, however, bargaining and deal-making has led more and more to transfers of rights which had previously been considered to be closely tied to the individual as a private person. This article posits that freedom of contract doctrine should not allow the complete alienation of all aspects of one’s name, but rather there should be limitations on how far parties may bargain, so that the purchaser cannot acquire the right to control the seller’s private activities. This …
Giving Unconscionability More Muscle: Attorney's Fees As A Remedy For Contractual Overreaching,
2010
Widener University School of Law
Giving Unconscionability More Muscle: Attorney's Fees As A Remedy For Contractual Overreaching, Stephen E. Friedman
Georgia Law Review
This Article seeks to broaden the conversation about unconscionability. While most of the discussion has focused on the appropriate standard for determining unconscionability, this Article focuses on the appropriate remedy to be imposed when unconscionability is found. The current remedy for unconscionability is nonenforcement or limited enforcement of unconscionable contracts or contract terms. This remedy is inadequate and seriously undermines unconscionability's effectiveness as a tool for policing against contractual overreaching. The Article proposes that courts be given discretion to award attorney's fees to consumers who successfully establish the unconscionability of a standard form contract. Such a remedy would enable unconscionability …
"The Sole Right ... Shall Return To The Authors": Anglo-American Authors' Reversion Rights From The Statute Of Anne To Contemporary U.S. Copyright,
2010
University of Cambridge
"The Sole Right ... Shall Return To The Authors": Anglo-American Authors' Reversion Rights From The Statute Of Anne To Contemporary U.S. Copyright, Lionel Bently, Jane C. Ginsburg
Faculty Scholarship
The rise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of a professional class of writers stimulated authors' demands for better remuneration from their writings. The increase in authors who sought to live from their work, rather than from patronage or personal fortune, likely provided at least one impulse for the author-protective provisions of the 1710 Statute of Anne. Under the regime of printing privileges that preceded the Statute of Anne, authors generally received from publisher-booksellers a one-time payment, made when the authors surrendered their manuscripts for publication. Authors whose works enjoyed particularly high demand might negotiate additional payments for new editions …
Origin Myths, Contracts, And The Hunt For Pari Passu,
2010
Columbia Law School
Origin Myths, Contracts, And The Hunt For Pari Passu, Mark C. Weidemaier, Robert E. Scott, G. Mitu Gulati
Faculty Scholarship
Sovereign loans involve complex but largely standardized contracts, and these include some terms that no one understands. Lawyers often account for the existence of these terms through origin myths. Focusing on one contract term, the pari passu clause, this article explores two puzzling aspects of these myths. First, it demonstrates that the myths are inaccurate as to both the clause’s origin and the role of lawyers in contract drafting. Second, the myths often are unflattering, inaccurately portraying lawyers as engaged in little more than rote copying. The article probes this disjunction between the myths and lawyers’ actual practices and explores …
Updating The Electronic Transactions Act? Australia's Accession To The Un Convention On The Use Of Electronic Communications In International Contracts 2005,
2010
Singapore Management University
Updating The Electronic Transactions Act? Australia's Accession To The Un Convention On The Use Of Electronic Communications In International Contracts 2005, Eliza Karolina Mik
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This article discusses the Australian Government’s proposal to accede to the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts as well as certain amendments to existing Australian electronic transactions legislation, i.e. the Electronic Transactions Act (Commonwealth) 1999 (”ETA”) and its state equivalents. Without going into a detailed discussion of all suggested amendments, this article focuses on those recommendations, which affect the area of contract formation, in particular: the use of automated systems in on-line transactions and the determination of the time the contract comes into existence. A critical review of the proposed changes reveals that their …
Braiding: The Interaction Of Formal And Informal Contracting In Theory, Practice, And Doctrine,
2010
Columbia Law School
Braiding: The Interaction Of Formal And Informal Contracting In Theory, Practice, And Doctrine, Ronald J. Gilson, Charles F. Sabel, Robert E. Scott
Faculty Scholarship
This Article studies the relationship between formal and informal contract enforcement. The theoretical literature treats the two strategies as separate phenomena. By contrast, a rich experimental literature considers whether the introduction of formal contracting and state enforcement "crowds out" the operation of informal contracting. Both literatures focus too narrowly on how formal contracts create incentives for parties to perfom substantive actions, while assuming that informal enforcement depends on preexisting levels of trust. As a result, current scholarship misses the relationship between formal and informal contract mechanisms that characterizes contemporary contracting in practice. Parties respond to rising uncertainty by writing contracts …
Rethinking Environmental Contracting,
2010
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Rethinking Environmental Contracting, Natasha Affolder
All Faculty Publications
Environmental contracts occupy an ill-defined middle ground between command and control regulation and voluntary initiatives. These agreements have captured the imagination of policymakers and scholars in the U.S. and Europe in particular. They are heralded as promising examples of “new governance.” This Article explores a little known example of environmental contracting which emerged in the context of a Canadian diamond mine — the Ekati Environmental Agreement. Through a fine-grained case study of the Ekati Agreement, this article challenges some of the assumptions that shape the “environmental contracting literature as well as the wider literature on “new governance.” By debunking the …
Evaluating The Impact Of The Un Convention On The Use Of Electronic Communications In International Contracts On Domestic Contract Law: The Singapore Example,
2010
Singapore Management University
Evaluating The Impact Of The Un Convention On The Use Of Electronic Communications In International Contracts On Domestic Contract Law: The Singapore Example, Eliza Mik
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (CUECIC or Convention) was adopted on 23 November 2005. Its essential objective is to establish uniform rules intended to “remove obstacles to the use of electronic communications in international contracts, including obstacles that might result from the operation of existing international trade law instruments, with a view to enhancing legal certainty and commercial predictability.” The Convention relies on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (MLEC), which constitutes an e-commerce flagship project dating back to 1995. It also resembles UNCITRAL’s Convention …
Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism,
2010
Touro Law Center
Contract Law, Party Sophistication And The New Formalism, Meredith R. Miller
Scholarly Works
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” …
Organizations Matter: They Are Institutions, After All,
2010
Touro Law Center
Organizations Matter: They Are Institutions, After All, John Linarelli
Scholarly Works
Judge Posner (2010) offers a substantial agenda for organization economics. He advises us on how organization economics can shed substantial light on some of the most pressing social problems of the day. I comment on two of the areas he selects for discussion and offer some comments on the relationship of organization economics to new institutional economics. Judge Posner surely is right to argue that organization economics can help us understand the failures of corporate governance in regulating executive pay. Moreover, with additional and more institutionally nuanced theorizing, organizational economics should further our understanding of the work of judiciaries in …
The New Price To Play: Are Passive Online Media Users Bound By Terms Of Use,
2010
Boston University School of Law
The New Price To Play: Are Passive Online Media Users Bound By Terms Of Use, Woodrow Hartzog
Faculty Scholarship
When individuals turn on the television, listen to the radio, or purchase newspapers, they are not forming contractual relationships. Yet, almost without exception, online readers, viewers and listeners are required to enter into "terms of use" contracts. These ubiquitous agreements are generally unfavorable for the user in areas of intellectual property rights and privacy. In addition, the terms often restrict users' behavior and their ability to litigate any disputes with a Web site. In analyzing the implications of contracts for Web site users, this article examines whether courts have recognized a distinction between online consumers, interactive users, and "passive media …
Misclassifying The Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors Of Unilateral Contract Characterization,
2010
University of Hawaii
Misclassifying The Insurance Policy: The Unforced Errors Of Unilateral Contract Characterization, Hazel G. Beh, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
Insurance policies are traditionally classified as unilateral or “reverse-unilateral” contracts, a characterization we find largely incorrect, with problematic consequences for adjudication of insurance coverage disputes. In addition to the general difficulties attending the unilateral classification, the concept as applied to insurance policies is not only unhelpful but incorrect. Insurance policies are more accurately viewed as bilateral contracts. In addition, the unilateral characterization of insurance policies introduces error and inconsistency into the litigation of insurance controversies. In particular, the unilateral view tends toward excessive formalism and focus on so-called “conditions” precedent to coverage, eschewing material breach analysis and encouraging needless forfeitures …
The Insurance Policy As Statute,
2010
University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law
The Insurance Policy As Statute, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
Insurance policies are classified as a subspecies of contract. Although the taxonomy is correct, rigid adherence to this classification system limits the legal system's ability to deal with some of the most problematic and frequently litigated questions of insurance coverage. Restricting conception of insurance policies to the contract model unduly limits analysis of the meaning and function of the policies. In addition, restricting characterization of insurance as a matter of “contract” does not necessarily produce swift, inexpensive, efficient, or uniform decisions (to say nothing about accuracy, justice, or fairness). Within contract law, scholars, and courts differ over the respective primacy …
