Contracts Commons^™

Some Issues On The Law Of Direct Damages (Us And Uk), Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

When a contract is breached, both U.S. and U.K. law provide that the non-breaching party should be made whole. The Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) provides that “[t]he remedies provided by this Act shall be liberally administered to the end that the aggrieved party may be put in as good a position as if the other party had fully performed.” The English version, going back to Robinson v. Harman, is “that where a party sustains a loss by reason of breach of contract, he is, so far as money can do it, to be placed in the same situation, with …

Foreign Contracts And U.S. Copyright Termination Rights: What Law Applies? – Comment, Richard Arnold, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Copyright Act gives authors the right to terminate assignments of copyrights in works other than works for hire executed on or after 1 January 1978 after 35 years, and to do so notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary. Given that agreements which are subject to the laws of other countries can assign U.S. copyrights, and purport to do so in perpetuity, U.S. law’s preclusion of agreements contrary to the author’s right to exercise her termination right can give rise to a difficult choice of law issue. Two recent cases which came before courts in the U.S. and England …

Would You Ever Write A Cartoon Contract?, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Anticipating Procedural Innovation: How And When Parties Calibrate Procedure Through Contract, Henry Allen Blair

Faculty Scholarship

Despite a vast literature on contract theory, scholars are only just scratching the surface of understanding how parties design their contracts in the real world. This shortfall is particularly true of procedural customizations. Contrary to some early commentators’ estimates, in a small but significant set of circumstances, parties engage in a diverse range of procedural customization. To date, however, scholars have struggled to identify and explain the patterns of ex ante procedural contracting.

This Article argues that the first step toward understanding how transactional attorneys harness the potential of procedural autonomy is to recognize that procedural customization functions most effectively …

Arbitration Of Worker Contracts: New Prime's Proper Statutory Interpretation Of The 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, Margaret L. Moses

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article will discuss how, in a future case, if the Court applied the reasoning of its unanimous opinion in New Prime-that the language of the statute should be interpreted consistent with the meaning it had to the Congress that adopted it-no worker would be covered by the FAA. Part I will consider the scope of the Commerce Clause, and the expansion in the Court's understanding of Congress' power under the Clause that occurred post-1925. In Part II, the article will deal with the purpose of the FAA as understood at the time of its adoption, as well as …

“Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”: Conceptualizing The Artist-Manager Relationship As A Marriage For Purposes Of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Gillian Sloane

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The problem is not that the artist-manager relationship is a highly personal one. The problem is, that due to the present state of the music industry and current legislation, the nature of the relationship is given no weight when disputes between the parties occur. The constraining designation of the artist-manager relationship and ineffective legal remedies provided when disputes arise, negatively affect the viability of the relationship and essentially guarantee dissolution of the relationship.

This Note addresses that problem. Instituting different forms of alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") processes, commonly applied in divorce and family law, at different stages of the artistmanager …

Identifying Fundamental Breach Of Articles 25 And 49 Of The Cisg: The Good Faith Duty Of Collaborative Efforts To Cure Defects - Make The Parties Draw A Line In The Sand Of Substantiality, Yasutoshi Ishida

Michigan Journal of International Law

Article 49(1) of the CISG allows buyers of international goods to avoid their sales contracts “if the failure by the seller to perform . . . amounts to a fundamental breach.” A breach is “fundamental,” as defined by CISG article 25, when it causes the buyer such detriment “as substantially to deprive him of what he is entitled to expect under the contract.” This definition is followed by the so-called “foreseeability test,” an “unless” clause that excepts the situation where “the party in breach did not foresee[,] and a reasonable person of the same kind in the same circumstances would …

The Modernization Of Government Contract Appeals And The Federal Circuit, Jeri Kaylene Somers

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of “Expectation Interest”, James Gordley

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Choose Ltas? An Empirical Study Of Ohio Manufacturers’ Contractual Choices Through A Bargaining Lens, Juliet P. Kostritsky, Jessica Ice

American University Business Law Review

This Article contributes to recent scholarship regarding Long Term Agreements (“LTAs”) by providing empirical evidence that suppliers are more likely to undertake the costs of an LTA if the transaction requires significant capital expenditures or the potential for large sunk costs. Through a survey of a random group of sixty-three Ohio manufacturers, the Article explores why manufacturers with a full range of contractual and non-contractual solutions might choose one set of arrangements over others.1 It then seeks to link its findings to a broader theory of how parties bargain to solve durable problems under conditions of uncertainty, sunk costs, and …

Giarrusso V. Giarrusso, 204 A.3d 1102 (R.I. 2019), Karen Lara

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Fifteenth Annual International Conference On Contracts, Michael P. Malloy

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Paradigm Shift: #Metoo And The Paradox Of Bribery Secrets, Sidney W. Delong

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Salvaging Revised Uniform Commercial Code Article Two: Possible Permanent Editorial Board Commentary, Henry D. Gabriel

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Issues On The Law Of Direct Damages (U.S. And U.K.), Victor Goldberg

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contract Interpretation And The Parol Evidence Rule: Toward Conceptual Clarification, Joshua M. Silverstein

Law Faculty Scholarship

Contract interpretation is one of the most important topics in commercial law. Unfortunately, the law of interpretation is extraordinarily convoluted. In essentially every American state, the jurisprudence is riddled with inconsistency and ambiguity. This causes multiple problems. Contracting parties are forced to expend additional resources when negotiating and drafting agreements. Disputes over contractual meaning are more likely to end up in litigation. And courts make a greater number of errors in the interpretive process. Together, these impacts result in significant unfairness and undermine economic efficiency. Efforts to remedy the doctrinal incoherence are thus warranted.

The goal of this Article is …

Going Bare In The Law Of Assignments: When Is An Assignment Champertous?, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

The article critiques the legal distinction between champerty and assignment, arguing that the focus should be on the assignor's motives rather than the assignee's identity. It challenges Dr. David Capper's approach to defining "bare assignments" and proposes that assignments should not be prohibited based solely on the assignee's identity unless they facilitate abus

Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Losses: The Cases For And Against Coverage, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

The financial consequences of the government-ordered shutdowns of businesses across America to mitigate the COVID-19 health crisis are enormous. Estimates indicate that small businesses have lost $255 to $431 billion per month and more than 44 million workers have been laid off. When businesses have requested reimbursement of their business interruption losses from their insurers under business interruption policies, their insurers have denied the claims. The insurance industry also has announced that business interruption policies do not cover pandemic losses, so they intend to fight COVID-19 claims “tooth and nail.” More than 450 lawsuits throughout the country already have been …

Artworks As Business Entities: Sculpting Property Rights By Private Agreement, Christopher G. Bradley

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Modern business entities, such as LLCs, are increasingly created and deployed to accomplish customized transactions and evade legal restrictions. Rather than acting as traditional business enterprises, entities serve as tools to facilitate complex commercial transactions and surmount limitations presented by existing bodies of law. One limitation constrains the ways that private parties can agree to divide property rights—a doctrinal limitation sometimes referred to as numerus clausus. This Article shows that such limitations on the customizing of property rights by private agreement now can be surmounted by virtue of modern business entity law. After describing the key features of modern …

"You're Fired!": The Common Law Should Respond With The Refashioned Tort Of Abusive Discharge, William R. Corbett

Journal Articles

An at will prerogative without limits could be suffered only in an anarchy, and there not for long--it certainly cannot be suffered in a society such as ours without weakening the bond of counter balancing rights and obligations that holds such societies together. Thus, while there may be a right to terminate a contract at will for no reason, or for an arbitrary or irrational reason, there can be no right to terminate such a contract for an unlawful reason or purpose that contravenes public policy. A different interpretation would encourage and sanction lawlessness, which law by its very nature …