Category Archives: Contract
Jarosław Bełdowski, ‘Economic Contract Theory and Law and Economics of Contracts: Are they twins or separate approaches? Selected overview of literature in the last decade’
ABSTRACT This paper takes a closer look at the divergence of economic approaches towards contracts (agreements) with various developments of Economic Contract Theory and Law and Economics of Contracts. In order to observe the multifaceted nature of Economic Contract Theory, its three main directions are discussed, namely incentive theory, incomplete theory and transaction cost theory. […]
Julian Jonker, ‘Stability in Contract’
ABSTRACT Contract law involves the public and therefore coercive enforcement of private claims. The coercive nature of contract consists in the fact that contract enforcement goes beyond acknowledgement that the underlying claims are binding. This coercive element stands in need of justification. This Article develops a justificatory criterion of reflexive adequacy: contract law doctrine that […]
Johanna Stark, ‘Regulatory Competition and Regulatory Contract Law’
ABSTRACT This chapter explores the inherent tension between regulatory contract law, understood as the instrumental use of private law to achieve exogenous social, economic, or environmental goals, and the mobility of legal subjects in a globalised legal order. Utilising the conceptual framework of a ‘market for contract law’, the analysis distinguishes between demand-side regulatory arbitrage, […]
Yifat Naftali Ben Zion, ‘A Systems Theory of Good Faith’
ABSTRACT Both the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Restatement (Second) of Contracts recognize the duty of good faith and fair dealing as a foundational principle of American contract law. Yet courts interpret this duty more narrowly than these texts suggest. Broader conceptions have met resistance, with some decisions warning that the ‘vaguely moralistic overtones’ […]
Afelia Nemcova, ‘Reliance and Market Entry in European Pre-Contractual Liability’
ABSTRACT Market entry often begins before the parties create an enforceable contractual relationship. During negotiations, firms may incur territory-specific costs, disclose commercially sensitive information, reorganize operations, or abandon alternative opportunities in reliance on a prospective transaction. When negotiations fail, the legal problem is not whether the disappointed party should obtain the expected benefits of the […]
Albert Tan, ‘Law and Morality in Commercial Relationships’
ABSTRACT An adverse human rights audit can put a supplier’s business at risk long before a court examines the evidence. For workers at the same factory, even a sound audit may leave the question of compensation unresolved. This article examines the authority of ethical assessments in commercial relationships through these two disputes. I argue that […]
Snigdha Chintala, ‘Good Faith in Indian Contract Law: Myth or Emerging Reality’
ABSTRACT Good faith is an important principle in contract law representing honesty, fairness and reasonable conduct between the parties. In Indian contract law the idea of good faith has remained uncertain. It does not recognise the duty of good faith in the formation of contracts which has led to the view that good faith is […]
Bolderson and Kitchen, ‘Class action waivers: contracting out of class action litigation in England and Wales’
INTRODUCTION This article considers whether businesses can lawfully deploy class action waivers (CAWs) to mitigate exposure to class action litigation involving breaches of competition law in England and Wales. It concludes that, in certain circumstances, they likely can, though the area is ripe for dispute and gives rise to a number of intellectually complex and […]
Wayne Courtney, ‘Liability in contract for mental distress’
INTRODUCTION … The treatment of mental distress damages in contract evolved to its present state through a mix of judicial intuition and scepticism, without ever settling upon an organising theory. This article is concerned with the matter of liability – that is, defining the circumstances in which compensation can be awarded – and not the […]
Lagioia, Jabłonowska, Liepina and Drazewski, ‘AI in Search of Unfairness in Consumer Contracts: The Terms of Service Landscape’
ABSTRACT This article explores the potential of artificial intelligence for identifying cases where digital vendors fail to comply with legal obligations, an endeavour that can generate insights about business practices. While heated regulatory debates about online platforms and AI are currently ongoing, we can look to existing horizontal norms, especially concerning the fairness of standard […]