Calculating promises : the emergence of modern American contract doctrine / Roy Kreitner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kreitner, Roy.

Series:

ACLS Fellows’ publications.

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Contracts--United States--History.

Contracts.

Promise (Law)--United States--History.

Promise (Law).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 242 p. )

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Presents the history of American contract law around the turn of the twentieth century. This book details shifts in our conception of contract by juxtaposing scholarly accounts of contract with case law, and shows how the cases exhibit conflicts for which scholarship offers just one of many possible answers.

Contents:

pt. I. Gifts and promises revisited. The revolution in consideration doctrine ; The gift from beyond the grave: case law ; Responding to revolution: moving gifts and consideration through the twentieth century ; Speculating on gifts and promises

pt. II. Speculations of contract. Distinguished gambles: the struggle to separate speculation and insurance from gambling ; "Contracts" for "futures": Commercial speculation and the gambling stigma ; Wagering in lives: the life insurance speculators ; Acquistive individuality vs. communal efficiency: conflicting policies and the love-hate relationship with risk

pt. III. The narratives of incomplete contracts. Framing incomplete contracts ; The use and abuse of historical narrative: debates over incomplete contracts ; Evaluating the frame of incompleteness discourse.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804768054

0804768056

9781435608887

1435608887

OCLC:

798794063