Contracts Commons^™

Alex Lyon & Son, Sales Managers & Auctioneers V. Leach: Auction Contracts, Bidder Qualifications, Offer And Acceptance, Waiver, And The Fallacy Of Treating All Bidders The Same, George A. Michak

West Virginia Law Review Online

In Alex Lyon & Son, Sales Managers & Auctioneers v. Leach, 844 S.E.2d 120 (W. Va. 2020), the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia grappled with the contractual relationships among participants in an auction transaction and rendered an opinion that (i) misstates and misaligns the rights and obligations among auctioneers, sellers, bidders, and buyers, (ii) impedes the ability of an auctioneer to reasonably control the conduct of an auction, and (iii) threatens to artificially circumscribe the prerogative of sellers and auctioneers to assume greater risks relative to certain bidders in an effort to expand the bidder pool in …

Forum Selection Clauses, Non-Signatories, And Personal Jurisdiction, John F. Coyle, Robin J. Effron

Notre Dame Law Review

Who is bound by a forum selection clause? At first glance, the answer to this question may seem obvious. It is black letter law that a person cannot be bound to an agreement without her consent. In recent years, however, courts have not followed this rule with respect to forum selection clauses. Instead, they routinely enforce these clauses against individuals who never signed the contract containing the clause. Courts justify this practice on the grounds that it promotes litigation efficiency by bringing all of the litigants together in the chosen forum. There are, however, problems with enforcing forum selection clauses …

Remedies For Government Breach: Lessons From The United States And A Zone Of Appealable Remedies For Southeast Asia, Benjamin D. Black

Brooklyn Law Review

Though international investment treaties may supplant domestic contract law in cross-border government contracts, their limited use in Southeast Asia informs the continued importance of clear remedies for a government breach of contract under domestic law. As investment from China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues to flow into the region, private parties require clear rules and remedies when a government breaches a contract. This note argues that the lack of clear and codified public contract law in Southeast Asia presents a substantial risk to private contractors and that the extreme variance in public contract law is detrimental to both parties involved. …

Hostile Restructurings, Diane L. Dick

Washington Law Review

The conventional wisdom holds that out-of-court loan restructurings are mostly consensual and collaborative. But this is no longer accurate. Highly aggressive, nonconsensual restructuring transactions—what I call “hostile restructurings”—are becoming a common feature of the capital markets. Relying on hypertechnical interpretations of loan agreements, one increasingly popular hostile restructuring method involves issuing new debt that enjoys higher priority than the existing debt; another involves transferring the most valuable collateral away from existing lenders to secure new borrowing.

These transactions are distinguishable from normal out-of-court restructurings by their use of coercive tactics to overcome not only the traditional minority lender holdout problem, …

Level-Up: Towards A More Competitive & Labor-Friendly E-Sports Industry, Andrew Ramstad

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Despite humble beginnings, the advent of the modern internet has seen the explosion of e-sports into an industry commanding hundreds of millions of annual viewers and nearly a billion dollars in annual advertising revenue. Facilitating this expansion has been a shift from independently run competitive e-sports leagues to leagues created and operated by the developers of the league’s underlying game. This vertical integration by developers increases e-sports accessibility to viewers, but at the cost of decreased player bargaining power and professional flexibility. The integration further incentivizes ever-increasing working hours and self-destructive or rule-breaking behavior by players to stay competitive. This …

Modernizing Mortgage Law, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Modern mortgage law is designed for a world that no longer exists. The residential mortgage transaction of today looks nothing like it did during the formative period when the property laws governing mortgages were developed. What was once a local dealing between two individuals and largely for commercial or quasi-commercial purposes has now become a housing- centric financial transaction-turned-asset between multiple distant and often invisible parties that operate as part ofa national market. Yet, although the mortgage transaction has changed, mortgage law has not. Property law rules that once balanced the rights of mortgagors and mortgagees now completely fail to …

Touchdown St. Louis: A Recap Of The Nfl And Rams Lawsuit, Katie Hoffecker

SLU Law Journal Online

The Rams’ move to Los Angeles in 2016 brought about more than just hard feelings toward the National Football League and owner, Stan Kroenke—it resulted in a billion dollar lawsuit. In this article, Katie Hoffecker analyzes the past five years of the litigation proceedings as the case ultimately settles.

Class Arbitration Waivers Cannot Be Found Unconscionable: A Pervasive And Common "Mis-Concepcion", Emma Silberstein

Northwestern University Law Review

In 1925, Congress enacted the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) as a means of quelling judicial hostility towards arbitration agreements, providing a mechanism for the enforcement of such agreements. The Supreme Court’s treatment and application of the FAA has evolved over time, and in recent decades the FAA has been massively extended to cover not only arm’s-length commercial transactions, but consumer and employment contracts as well. The Supreme Court, its previous hostile stance long forgotten, has created a policy of favoring arbitration and striking down many an argument that may interfere with that policy. In particular, the Court solidified its position …

Business Information And Nondisclosure Agreements: A Public Policy Framework, Rex N. Alley

Northwestern University Law Review

Trade secret law, as codified in the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, gives businesses in nearly every U.S. jurisdiction a uniform, clearly defined right to protect secret and valuable business information from misappropriation. But how can businesses protect information that, while potentially useful, falls short of the legal definition of a trade secret? Businesses often require their employees to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to protect this category of information, which this Note refers to as “confidential business information” or “CBI.” These CBI NDAs are often drafted so broadly that, read literally, they would encompass every piece of information an employee learns …

Force Majeure, Vis Major, Impossibility, And Impracticability Under Ohio Law Before And After Covid-19, Laura Gates

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Introduction, Jennifer S. Martin, Colin P. Marks, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The survey that follows highlights the most important developments of 2020 dealing with domestic and international sales of goods, personal property leases, payments, letters of credit, documents of title. investment securities, and secured transactions.

Creating Cryptolaw For The Uniform Commercial Code, Carla L. Reyes

Washington and Lee Law Review

A contract generally only binds its parties. Security agreements, which create a security interest in specific personal property, stand out as a glaring exception to this rule. Under certain conditions, security interests not only bind the creditor and debtor, but also third-party creditors seeking to lend against the same collateral. To receive this extraordinary benefit, creditors must put the world on notice, usually by filing a financing statement with the state in which the debtor is located. Unfortunately, the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.) Article 9 filing system fails to provide actual notice to interested parties and introduces risk of heavy …

Striking The Balance Between Contractual Rights And Obligations: Restructured Contract Law In The Newly Enacted Chinese Civil Code, Mo Zhang

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Contract legislation in China experienced a significant change as a result of the Civil Code's enactment in 2020. With a focus on civil rights and private interests, contract law and other areas of law are expected to help promote the development of a rights-based society under the Civil Code-a much wanted shift from the traditionally obligation-based society. In this context, the Civil Code is hailed in China as a milestone in the country's legal landscape.

The Civil Code consolidated the 1999 Contract Law with judicial practices and restructured the legal framework governing contracts by modifying or adding provisions aimed at …

Contract Schemas, Roseanna Sommers

Articles

This review draws on the notion of “contract schemas” to characterize what ordinary people think is happening when they enter into contractual arrangements. It proposes that contracts are schematically represented as written documents filled with impenetrable text containing hidden strings, which are routinely signed without comprehension. This cognitive template, activated whenever people encounter objects with these characteristic features, confers certain default assumptions, associations, and expectancies. A review of the literature suggests that contract schemas supply (a) the assumption that terms will be enforced as written, (b) the feeling that one is obligated to perform, and (c) the sense that one …

Assumption Of Risk In Consumer Contracts And The Distraction Of Unconscionability, Zahra Takhshid

Cardozo Law Review

For years, courts have struggled to determine when to enforce exculpatory clauses that would prevent personal injury victims from availing themselves of tort remedies under the doctrine of express assumption of risk. In the past, when courts declined to enforce these clauses, they did so on the ground that enforcing such a waiver for the activities in question was “against public policy.” Recently, however, many courts have addressed the issue through the contract doctrine of “unconscionability.” This change in focus has subtly but importantly altered the enforceability inquiry by emphasizing the conditions under which the plaintiff agreed to the contract, …

Debunking The Efficacy Of Standard Contract Boilerplate: Part Iii, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

There are several things wrong with this paragraph. First, the heading "Knowledge of Residence" is underinclusive, as the paragraph concerns more than where each party lives. A more inclusive and effective heading would be "Knowledge of Contact Information." Second, the introductory phrase is ambiguous, as one could read "for so long as the minor children are less than eighteen years of age" as requiring the parties to exchange information only until one of the parties' children turns 18. Moreover, "eighteen years of age" is archaic and clunky legalese. Keep it simple, solicitors: "eighteen" or "age eighteen" would suffice. Applying these …

Pembatalan Akta Jual Beli Saham Dalam Pelaksanaan Akuisisi Pt Sls (Analisis Putusan Mahkamah Agung Nomor 3201 K/Pdt/2019), Hertaty Sianturi

Indonesian Notary

Penelitian ini membahas mengenai pembatalan akta jual beli saham dalam pelaksanaan akuisisi PT SLS. Dalam penelitian ini terdapat 3 (tiga) pokok permasalahan, yaitu: (i) mengenai keabsahan akta jual beli saham pada Putusan Nomor 3201 K/PDT/2019; (ii) mengenai bentuk kelalaian Notaris dalam pelaksanaan akuisisi PT SLS yang tidak sah; dan (iii) mengenai pertanggungjawaban Notaris terhadap akta jual beli saham dalam pelaksanaan akuisisi PT SLS yang tidak sah. Untuk menjawab permasalahan tersebut, digunakan metode penelitian hukum yuridis-normatif dengan tipologi penelitian eksplanatoris. Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah data sekunder dengan alat pengumpulan data yaitu studi pustaka. Hasil penelitian ini adalah: (i) …

Tanggung Jawab Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah (Ppat) Terhadap Penggelapan Pajak Bea Perolehan Hak Atas Tanah Dan Bangunan (Bphtb) Berdasarkan Putusan Mahkamah Agung No. 738/Pid.B/2018/Pn Smg, Viny Dwivi

Indonesian Notary

Penelitian ini membahas mengenai studi kasus Putusan Pengadilan Negeri Semarang Nomor 738/Pid.B/2018/PN Smg pada perbuatan Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah (PPAT) yang tidak menuntaskan pengurusan pembayaran pajak Bea Perolehan Hak atas Tanah dan Bangunan (BPHTB) yang telah dititipkan oleh klien. Hal ini berujung kepada tindak pidana penggelapan uang pajak yang dilakukan oleh PPAT sehingga klien mengalami kerugian. Adapun Permasalahan yang diangkat adalah mengenai kewenangan PPAT dalam penerimaan penitipan pembayaran pajak BPHTB dan tanggung jawab PPAT dalam penggelapan pajak BPHTB pada transaksi jual beli hak atas tanah dan bangunan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan yuridis normatif, dengan tipologi penelitian preskriptif. Hasil analisa adalah …

Tanggung Jawab Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah Terhadap Akta Jual Beli Yang Mengandung Kepalsuan Intelektual Dan Materiil (Studi Putusan Mahkamah Agung Nomor 1143/K/Pid/2019), Andri Setiawan

Indonesian Notary

Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah (PPAT) dalam praktiknya menjalankan jabatan berbagai bentuk kepalsuan yang mungkin melekat pada suatu akta autentik yaitu kepalsuan intelektual dan kepalsuan materiil. Permasalahan tersebut biasanya terjadi karena kurangnya kehati-hatian dalam proses pembuatan akta. Penelitian ini menganalisis tanggung jawab PPAT dalam kasus di Putusan Mahkamah Agung Nomor 1143 K/Pid/2019 dan mengidentifikasi peran PPAT dalam mencegah terjadinya kembali kasus pemalsuan seperti di Putusan tersebut. Metode penelitian ini yang digunakan adalah yuridis normatif. Hasil penelitian dalam hal para penghadap tidak dapat memenuhi persyaratan baik formil maupun materiil dalam pembuatan akta, maka PPAT berhak menolak membuatkan akta. PPAT juga harus lebih …

Penyelundupan Hukum Kepemilikan Tanah Pada Akta Perjanjian Pengikatan Jual Beli Yang Memuat Klausul Hak Membeli Kembali (Studi Kasus Putusan Peninjauan Kembali Nomor 539 Pk/Pdt/2020), Elvira .

Indonesian Notary

Pembuatan Akta Perjanjian Pengikatan Jual Beli (PPJB) pada praktiknya banyak menimbulkan permasalahan, salah satunya disebabkan oleh muatan Klausul Hak Membeli Kembali yang memberikan hak kepada Penjual untuk dapat membeli kembali objek tanah dan bangunan yang telah dijualnya kepada Pembeli. Sampai dengan saat ini tidak ada peraturan yang mengatur kebolehan atau larangan penggunaan hak tersebut, oleh karenanya banyak menimbulkan permasalahan, salah satunya adalah kasus pada Putusan Peninjauan Kembali Nomor 539 PK/Pdt/2020 di mana hakim justru menyatakan sah dan mengikat atas Akta PPJB yang memuat Klausul Hak Membeli Kembali. Berangkat dari hal tersebut maka permasalahan yang diangkat dalam penelitian ini adalah mengenai …