Category Archives: Contract
‘Red hand doctrine: a new label and a high bar’
The red hand, or onerous clause, doctrine – which says that an onerous term will not be given effect unless the other party’s attention has been specifically drawn to it – is not lightly to be invoked, according to the Court of Appeal. In a 1950s case about barrels of orange juice (Spurling) – subsequently […]
Möllers and Glas, ‘Paying for Returns in Distance Contracts: Rethinking Consumer Protection Law’
ABSTRACT In Germany, one fourth of all goods bought online are returned to the retailer; for clothing, the figure is up to 75%. Whether the legislator had numbers like these in mind when he introduced the right of withdrawal almost 30 years ago seems doubtful. Its legal basis, the Consumer Rights Directive and its predecessor, […]
Basu and Sahoo, ‘Contracting With Artificial Intelligence: Assessing Autonomy under Uncertainty’
ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence’s (AI’s) future in law sparks polarized assessments with supporters advocating limitless potential, while skeptics challenge its promises. A middle ground, however, is created by scholars grappling with binary questions like ‘can AI surpass human intelligence’, and ‘should it be allowed to capture activities that exclusively fall within human intellectual province’? Despite these […]
Angela Carpi, ‘Between Facts and Law. The Bottleneck of Louisiana Contract Law Facing Supervening Events’
ABSTRACT The article examines the tension in Louisiana contract law between the strict doctrine of pacta sunt servanda and the realities of supervening events that drastically alter contractual obligations but do not render performance absolutely impossible. Despite its dual heritage in civil law and common law – and frequent exposure to natural disasters – Louisiana […]
Sergio Mittlaender, ‘Contractual Interests, Ranked’
ABSTRACT Traditional legal scholarship and Law & Economics posit that all contractual interests are, and should be, protected by contract law. This article challenges this notion by examining whether public perceptions align with legal doctrine. In an experiment, respondents report their perceived social appropriateness of breach and the appropriate level of damages considering different types […]
Conaglen and Sherry, ‘Equitable High-Density Housing: Fiduciary Duties in Developer-Negotiated Body Corporate Contracts’
ABSTRACT Strata title apartments constitute a significant and growing segment of the Australian housing market and have increasingly been the subject of consumer complaint. A particular source of concern are contracts between bodies corporate and service providers when housing developers have played a role in the contract’s negotiation and formation. By analogy with company promoters, […]
Andrea Molnár, ‘The Duty to Inform as a Principle in Private Law’
ABSTRACT The study aims to support the fact that the obligation to provide information is a defining principle of private law. It is an ancillary obligation present in obligations, especially in contracts, in addition to the main obligations. It participates as a building block in the development of life relationships, although such a role is […]
Nick Sage, ‘Is Contract Law Liberal? On Autonomy and Exchange’
ABSTRACT Autonomy theories of contract are influential and have many attractions, not least their compatibility with liberal ideals. However, such theories cannot account for basic features of the common law of contract, in particular: the role of established transaction types, the doctrine of consideration and the phenomenon of contractual obligation. An exchange theory of contract […]
Lafontaine, Luisetto and Prescott, ‘Mobility-Restricting Covenants in Business Contracts: The Case of Franchising’
ABSTRACT Several studies show that restrictive covenants in employment contracts, such as noncompete agreements, may affect employees in detrimental ways, including by reducing mobility and suppressing wages. While such concerns are real, these clauses also have the potential to serve legitimate business purposes by helping companies protect valuable information, which can encourage investment and training […]
Cheong and Zou, ‘Resolving Wrongs in Algorithmic Contracting: Applications of the Doctrines of Unconscionability’
ABSTRACT Algorithmic contracting has introduced unique complexities to the law. Deterministic algorithms and particularly opaque, non-deterministic machine learning and artificial intelligence systems, can exacerbate existing imbalances between contracting parties. In Quoine Pte Ltd v B2C2 Ltd, the doctrine of mistake could not resolve the dispute concerning algorithmic errors, which caused cryptocurrency trades to execute at […]