By Victor Goldberg

Description

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

Introduction

Part I Some Concepts

1. The Net Profits Puzzle

Part 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

5. Postscript on Freedom from Contract

Part III Interpretation

6. Discretion in Long-Term Open Quantity Contracts: Reining in Good Faith

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

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

9. The \"Battle of the Forms:\" Fairness, Efficiency, and the Best-Shot Rule

Part IV Remedies

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

11. Expectation Damages and Property in the Price

12. The Middleman\\\'s Damages: Lost Profits or the Contract-Market Differential

13. An Economic Analysis of the Lost--Volume Retail Seller

14. Consequential Damages

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

Part V Option to Terminate

16. Bloomer Girl Revisited, or How to Frame an Unmade Picture

17. Bloomer Girl: A Postscript

18. Wasserman v. Township of Middletown: The Penalty Clause That Wasn\\\'t

Part VI Impossibility, Related Doctrines, and Price Adjustment

19. Price Adjustment in Long--Term Contracts

20. Impossibility and Related Excuses

21. Alcoa v. Essex: Anatomy of a Bungled Deal

22. Mineral Park v. Howard: The Irrelevance of Impracticability

Concluding Thoughts

Notes

References

Table of Cases

Index

Published Year: 2007 Format: Hard Back ISBN: 978-0-674-02312-3 Publisher: Harvard University Press No of Pages: 424 Our Price: £ 41.95 Reviews: 0 reivew(s).

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