Framing contract law : an economic perspective / Victor Goldberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldberg, Victor P., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commercial law--United States.

Commercial law.

Negotiation in business--United States.

Negotiation in business.

Contracts--Economic aspects--United States.

Contracts.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (424 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2006]

Summary:

The central theme of this book is that an economic framework--incorporating such concepts as information asymmetry, moral hazard, and adaptation to changed circumstances--is appropriate for contract interpretation, analyzing contract disputes, and developing contract doctrine. The value of the approach is demonstrated through the close analysis of major contract cases. In many of the cases, had the court (and the litigators) understood the economic context, the analysis and results would have been very different. Topics and some representative cases include consideration (Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon), interpretation (Bloor v. Falstaff and Columbia Nitrogen v. Royster), remedies (Campbell v. Wentz, Tongish v. Thomas, and Parker v. Twentieth Century Fox), and excuse (Alcoa v. Essex).

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction

I Some Concepts

1 The Net Profits Puzzle

II Consideration

2 Reading Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon with Help from the Kewpie Dolls

3 Mutuality and the Jobber’s Requirements: Middleman to the World?

4 Satisfaction Clauses: Consideration without Good Faith

III Interpretation

5 Discretion in Long-Term Open Quantity Contracts: Reining In Good Faith

6 In Search of Best Efforts: Reinterpreting Bloor v. Falstaff

7 Columbia Nitrogen v. Royster: Do as They Say, Not as They Do

8 The “Battle of the Forms”: Fairness, Efficiency, and the Best-Shot Rule

IV Remedies

9 Campbell v. Wentz: The Case of the Walking Carrots

10 Expectation Damages and Property in the Price

11 The Middleman’s Damages: Lost Profits or the Contract-Market Differential

12 An Economic Analysis of the Lost-Volume Retail Seller

13 Consequential Damages

14 A Reexamination of Glanzer v. Shepard: Surveyors on the Tort-Contract Boundary

V Option to Terminate

15 Bloomer Girl Revisited, or How to Frame an Unmade Picture

16 Bloomer Girl: A Postscript

17 Wasserman v. Township of Middletown: The Penalty Clause That Wasn’t

VI Impossibility, Related Doctrines, and Price Adjustment

18 Price Adjustment in Long-Term Contracts

19 Impossibility and Related Excuses

20 Alcoa v. Essex: Anatomy of a Bungled Deal

21 Mineral Park v. Howard: The Irrelevance of Impracticability

Conclusion

Notes

References

Table of Cases

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [393]-400) and index.

ISBN:

9780674272941

0674272943

OCLC:

1285171339