Kaiponanea T Matsumura, ‘Unifying Status and Contract’, 56 UC Davis Law Review 1571 (2023). One might be tempted to think that status-based relationships were displaced by contract in modern societies, in the way that Henry Maine suggested over fifty years ago. However, it is now also understood that many specific kinds of relationships are governed by their own rules, even if some elements of voluntary agreement are present. For example, even if one chooses to get married and to marry a particular person, many of the surrounding rules are outside of the parties’ control. Employers and employees choose not only their contractual partners but also most of the critical terms of the employment relationship; but the state imposes a variety of mandatory terms and prohibits others. In these contexts, status-based rules sharply delimit the application of general contract rules. We have paid relatively less attention to how status informs the affirmative application of general contract law, even though there are a variety of doctrines internal to contract that apply ‘special rules’ to tenants, consumers, insured, franchisees, and many others. In his insightful recent article, ‘Unifying Status and Contract’, Kaiponanea Matsumura corrects this neglect … (more)
[Aditi Bagchi, JOTWELL, 28 July 2023]
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