ContractsProf Blog

Contracts Issues in the Costa Concordia Wreck

When I was a teenager, I used to read Mad Magazine (when I wasn't reading Dostoevsky, Kafka or Sartre, of course).  I retain very few memories of my childhood, but one Mad feature stuck with me, although only vaguely.  The idea was to take a story and present it as it would be presented in magazines with very different perspectives on the world.  The story that Mad worked with was a football game, so of course one version was just to report on the game.  Another version was a medical journal featuring an image of some bone that had been broken during the game.  Another version that I remember distinctly featured a photograph of a football taken at very close range.  The image was supposed to represent how the football game would be featured in a photography magazine.  It described all of the particulars of the way the photograph was taken -- film speed, lens type, etc., and then mentioned that the photograph was of the ball as it soared through the uprights for the winning field goal, just before it smashed the photographer's camera.  A nice touch, in the estimation of my 13-year-old mind.  

I've often thought that this blog plays out Mad Magazine's idea, as do many other blogs and even the lamestream media.  And so, we pick over the carcass of a human and environmental catastrophe for a tidbit of contracts doctrine.  But we are not alone.  As the New York Times reported yesterday, it will be very difficult for any victims of the Costa Concordia wreck to go after the ship's corporate parent, Carnival Cruise Lines, for reasons that will strike a chord with fans of the civil procedure chestnut, Carninval Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute.

According to the Times, at least 70 passengers of the ill-fated cruise ship have signed on to a class-action lawsuit, but their ability to get at the corporate defendant will be greatly hindered by the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, characterized on the International Maritime Organization Website as “a virtually unbreakable system of limiting liability," and by the terms contained in the 6,400-word contracts attached to their cruise tickets. 

The contract could provide great fodder for a few sessions on contractual remedies.

[JT]

Weekly Top Tens from the Social Science Research Network

A hit!  A palpable hit!  At the top of the SSRN list, we have a new article that has vaulted to #1 out of nowhere.  312 downloaders can't be wrong!

RECENT HITS (for all papers announced in the last 60 days) 
TOP 10 Papers for Journal of Contracts & Commercial Law eJournal 
November 18, 2011 to January 17, 2012

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	312	The Scope and Implications of Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. (2011)  Michael St. Patrick Baxter, Elizabeth Gibson, Randal C. Picker, R. Patrick Vance,  Covington & Burling LLP, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - School of Law, University of Chicago - Law School, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN
2	229	Endogenous Institutions: Law as a Coordinating Device  Gillian Hadfield, Barry R. Weingast,  USC Law School and Department of Economics, Stanford University - The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
3	187	In or Out of Mortgage Trouble? A Study of Bankrupt Homeowners  Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. McCue, Eric S. Belsky,  University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - School of Law, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN, Harvard University
4	168	Political Risk and Sovereign Debt Contracts  Stephen J. Choi, G. Mitu Gulati, Eric A. Posner,  New York University (NYU) - School of Law, Duke University - School of Law, University of Chicago - Law School
5	145	The Rome I Regulation Rules on Party Autonomy for Choice of Law: A U.S. Perspective  Ronald A. Brand,  University of Pittsburgh - School of Law
6	88	Theories of Contract Law and Enforcing Promissory Morality: Comments on Charles Fried  Brian Bix,  University of Minnesota Law School
7	69	Competition and Consumer Protection: A Behavioral Economics Account  Oren Bar-Gill,  New York University (NYU) - School of Law
8	65	Beyond the First Amendment: Shaping the Contours of Commercial Speech in Video Games, Virtual Worlds and Social Media  Jon Garon,  NKU Chase College of Law
9	64	How to Judge Shari'a Contracts: A Guide to Islamic Marriage Agreements in American Courts  Nathan B. Oman,  William & Mary Law School
10	61	Bankruptcy, Backwards: The Problem of Quasi-Sovereign Debt  Anna Gelpern,  American University Washington College of Law

RECENT HITS (for all papers announced in the last 60 days) 
TOP 10 Papers for Journal of LSN: Contracts (Topic)  
November 18, 2011 to January 17, 2012

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	145	The Rome I Regulation Rules on Party Autonomy for Choice of Law: A U.S. Perspective  Ronald A. Brand,  University of Pittsburgh - School of Law
2	58	Consumer Protection and the Islamic Law of Contract  Muhammad Akbar Khan,  International Islamic University
3	58	In-House Counsel’s Role in the Structuring of Mortgage-Backed Securities  Shaun Barnes, Kathleen G. Cully, Steven L. Schwarcz,  Duke University - School of Law, Kathleen G. Cully PLLC, Duke University - School of Law
4	43	Das neue Internationale Privatrecht der Volksrepublik China: Nach den Steinen tastend den Fluss überqueren (The New Private International Law of the People's Republic of China: Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones)  Knut Benjamin Pissler,  Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
5	42	A Dual Approach to Contract Remedies  Michael D. Knobler,  Yale University - Law School
6	38	Non-State Law in the (Proposed) Hague Principles on Choice of Law in International Contracts  Genevieve Saumier, Lauro Gama,  McGill University - Faculty of Law, PUC-Rio,
7	37	Full Harmonization in European Private Law: A Two-Track Concept  Vanessa Mak,  Tilburg University - Tilburg Law School
8	29	Private Law and Moral Practices Part 1: Contract  Prince Saprai, George Letsas,  University College London - Faculty of Laws , University College London - Faculty of Laws
9	28	Beyond Ex Post Expediency - An Ex Ante View of Rescission and Restitution  Richard R. W. Brooks, Alexander Stremitzer,  Yale University - Law School, UCLA School of Law
10	25	Interactive Contracting in Social Networks  Mark Chen,  Cornell Law Review

 

[JT]

A Puzzler from Ken Adams

Over at the Koncision Blog, Ken Adams poses the following question:

In this post I refer to “bills of sale, instruments of assignment, releases, deeds, powers of attorney, stock powers, and the like, in other words short documents, usually signed by one party, that consist largely or entirely of language of performance, with the signatory giving something to someone.”

But in the same post I quote from two documents that served analogous functions but were structured as unilateral contracts, with both sides signing. (Black’s Law Dictionary defines a unilateral contract as “A contract in which only one party makes a promise or undertakes a performance; a contract in which no promisor receives a promise as consideration from the promise given.”)

Anyone care to propose when you should use a one-signatory document and when you should use a unilateral contract?

Any takers?

[JT]

Only Two Weeks Remaining Before the Polls Close

Now that folks are back from AALS and gearing up for a new semester, we remind all fans of contracts scholarship to get out and vote for the best contracts law article to appear in 2011.  We would really love to hear from you.  Vote by sending the name of the article to jeremy.telman@valpo.edu.  You can find more details about the contest here.  

Here is a list of the entries:

Kenneth A. Adams, Making a Mess of Ambiguity: Lessons from the Third Circuit’s Opinion in Meyer v. CUNA Mutual Insurance Society, Bus. L. Today (the ABA Business Law Section's Online Resource) (Nov. 24, 2011)

Sofia Adrogue, Recent Developments in Fifth Circuit Business Torts Jurisprudence, 43 Tex. Tech. L. Rev. 843 (2011).

Michael Aikins, Off-Contract Harms: The Real Effect of Liberal Rescission Laws on Contract Price, 121 Yale L. J. Online 68 (2011)

Miriam Albert, Lenne Espenschied and Grace M. Giesel, Exercise Showcase, 12 Transactions 335 (2011) 

Luca Anderlini, Leonardo Felli, and Andrew Postlewaite, Should Courts Always Enforce What Contracting Parties Write? 7 Rev. L. & Econ. (2011)

Sally Andersen, Mapping the terrain: The last decade of payday lending in Australia, 39 Australian Bus. L. Rev. 5 (2011)

Hiro N. Aragaki, Equal Opportunity for Arbitation, 58 UCLA L. Rev. 1189 (2011)

Aditi Bagchi, Managing Moral Risk: The Case of Contracts, 111 Colum. L. Rev. 1878 (2011)

Aditi Bagchi, Unequal Promises, 72 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 467 (2011)

Glen Banks, Lost Profits for Breach of Contract: Would the Court of Appeals Apply the Second Circuit's Analysis? 74 Alb. L. Rev. 637 (2010/2011)

Ian Bartum, Thoughts on the Divergence of Contract and Promise, 24 Canadian J. L & Jurisprudence 225 (2011)

Stephen F. Befort, Unilateral Alteration of Public Sector Collective Bargaining Agreements and the Contract Clause, 59 Buff. L. Rev. 1 (2011)

Uri Benoliel, The Behavioral Law and Economics of Franchise Tying Contracts,  41 Rutgers L.J. 527 (2010).

Omri Ben-Shahar, Fixing Unfair Contracts, 63 Stan. L. Rev. 869 (2011)

Omri Ben-Shahar and Eric A. Posner, The Right to Withdraw in Contract Law, 40 J. Legal Stud.115 (2011)

Norman D. Bishara, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Employer: Relative Enforcement of Covenants Not to Compete, Trends, and Implications for Employee Mobility Policy. 13 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 751 (2011)

Brian H. Bix, Mahr Agreement, Contracting in the Shadow of Family Law (and Religious Law) -- A Comment on Oman's Article, 1 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 61 (2011)

Jennifer L. Blair, Surviving Reality TV: The Ultimate Challenge for Reality Show Contestants, 31 Loy. L.A. Ent. L. Rev. 1 (2010-2011)

Richard R.W. Brooks & Alexander Stremitzer, Remedies On and Off Contract, 120 Yale L.J. 690 (2011)

Deborah Burand, Kojo Yelpaala and Peter Linzer, Teaching Transactional Skills and Law in an International Context, 12 Transactions 275 (2011)

Scott J. Burnham, Blood Does Not a Contract Make: A Response to Professor Nancy Kim, 1 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 49 (2011)

Adam Candeub, Contract, Warranty and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 46 Wake Forest L. Rev. 45 (2011)

Robert A. Caplen, Turning Esch to Dust? The State of Supplementation of the Administrative Record in Bid Protests before the Court of Federal Claims, 12 Whittier L. Rev. 197 (2011)

William J. Carney, Ronald J. Gilson and George W. Dent, Jr., Keynote Discussion: Just What Exactly Does a Transactional Lawyer Do? 12 Transactions 175 (2011)

David Chalkin, A Critical Examination of How Contract Law Is Use by Financial Institutions Operating in Multiple Jurisdictions, 34 Melbourne Univ. L. Rev. 34 (2010)

Vincent Chiappetta, Patent Exhaustion: What's It Good For? 51 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1087 (2011)

Carl J. Circo, Will Green Building Contracts Transform Construction and Design Law? 43 Urb. Law. 4837 (2011)

Neil B. Cohen and William H. Henning. Freedom of Contract vs. Free Alienability: An Old Struggle Emerges in a New Context, 46 Gonz. L. Rev. 353 (2010/11)

Ronnie Cohen and Shannon O'Byrne, Burning Down the House: Law, Emotion and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, 45 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 677 (2011)

Amanda Harmon Coole , Marka B. Fleming and Gwendolyn McFadden-Wade, The Constitutional and Contractual Controversy of Suspicionless Drug Resting of Public School Teachers, 63 Okla. L. Rev. 421 (2011)

Lawrence A. Cunningham, A New Legal Theory to Test Executive Pay: Contractual Unconscionability. 96 Iowa L. Rev. 1177 (2011)

Jaime, Dodge, The Limits of Procedural Private Ordering, 97 Va. L. Rev. 723 (2011)

Michael A. Dorelli  and Phillip T. Scaletta, Recent Developments in Indiana Business and Contract Law. 44 Ind. L. Rev. 1053 (2011)

Mateja Djurovic, Serbian Contract Law: its development and the New Serbian Civil Code, 7 Eur. Rev. of Contract L. 65 (2011) 

Christopher R. Drahozal, and Peter B. Rutledge, Contract and Procedure, 94 Marq. L. Rev. 1103 (2011)

Shelley Dunck, Brian Krumm and Sharon Pocock, Teaching Contract Drafting Using Real Contracts, 12 Transactions 359 (2011) 

W. David East, Douglas Wm. Godfrey and Carol D. Newman. Teaching Transactional Skills and Tasks other than Contract Drafting, 12 Transactions 217 (2011) 

David G. Epstein, Response to Reasonable Expectations in Sociocultural Context, 1 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 54 (2011) 

David M. Epstein, Helen S. Scott, Carole Heyward and Daniel B. Bogart, Simulations in Clinics, Contract Drafting, & Upper-Level Courses, 12 Transactions 55 (2011)

Horst Eidenmüller, Why Withdrawal Rights? 7 Eur. Rev. of Contract L. 1 (2011) 

Carlos A. Encinas, Clause Majeure?: Can a Borrower Use an Economic Downturn or Economic Downturn-Related Event to Invoke the Force Majeure Clause in Its Commercial Real Estate Loan Documents? 45 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 731 (2011)

Mark Fagan, Tamar Frankel, Eric J. Gouvin and Kathy Z. Heller, Upper-level Courses: Three Exemplars, 12 Transactions 377 (2011)

Yuval Feldman & Doron Teichman, Are All Contractual Obligations Created Equal? 100 Georgetown L. J. 5 (2011) 

Stephen Friedman, Arbitration Provisions: Little Darlings and Little Monsters, 79 Fordham L. Rev. (2011)

Thomas A. Gabriele, Could the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 Have Fixed the Problems that Plagued the F-22 Acquisition Project Back in 1981?40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 741 (2011)

David Gilo & Ariel Porat, Viewing Unconscionability through a Market Lens, 52 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 133 (2011)

Victor Goldberg, Traynor (Drennan) Versus Hand (Baird):Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing, J. Legal Analysis Advance Access (Oct. 7, 2011)

Eric J. Gouvin, Robert Statchen, Anthony J. Luppino and William A. Kell, Interdisciplinary Transactional Courses, 12 Transactions 101 (2011)

Jack M. Graves, Arbitration as Contract: The Need For a Fully Developed and Comprehensive Set of Statutory Default Legal Rules, 2 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. 227 (2011).

Stefan Grundmann & Sebastian Uhlig, German Contract Law – Nearly a Decade After the Fundamental Reform in the Schuldrechtsmodernisierung,  Eur. Rev. of Contract L. 78 (2011) 

Surya Gablin Gunasekara, "Other Transaction" Authority: NASA's Dynamic Acquisition Instrument for the Commercialization of Manned Spaceflight or Cold War Relic? 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 893 (2011) 

John M. Garon and Elaine D. Ziff, The Work Made for Hire Doctrine Revisited: Startup and Technology Employees and the Use of Contracts in a Hiring Relationship, 12 Minn. J. L. Sci. & Tech. 489 (2011)

David Hahn, The Internal Logic of Assumption of Executory Contracts, 13 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 723-750 (2011)

Sam Foster Halabi, Efficient Contracting between Foreign Investors and Host States: Evidence from Stabilization Clauses, 31 Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 261 (2011)

Grant M. Hayden & Matthew T. Bodie, The Uncorporation and the Unraveling of "Nexus of Contracts" Theory, 109 Mich. L. Rev. 1127 (2011) (reviewing Larry E. Ribstein, The Rise of the Uncorporation)

Trevor C. Hartley, Choice of Law Regarding Voluntary Assignment of Contractual Obligations under the Rome I Regulation, 60 Int'l & Comp. L. Quarterly 29 (2011)

Joan MacLeod Heminway, Michael A. Woronoff and Lyman P.Q. Johnson. Innovative Transactional Pedagogies, 12 Transactions 243 (2011)

Alec Hillbo, Fifty Years of Restrictive Covenants in Arizona Law,  4 Phoenix L. Rev. 725 (2011)

Robert A. Hillman and Maureen O'Rourke. Defending Disclosure in Software Licensing, 78 U. Chi. L. Rev. 95 (2011)

Adam J. Hirsch, Freedom of Testation/Freedom of Contract, 95 Minn. L. Rev. 2180 (2011)

Michael H. Hoffheimer, Conflicting Rules of Interpretation and Construction in Multi-jurisdictional Disputes, 63 Rutgers L. Rev. 599 (2011)

David Horton, Arbitration as Delegation, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 437 (2011)

Grace Hum, Miki Felsenburg, Barbara Lentz, Carolyn Broering-Jacobs and Ted Becker, Legal Writing Professors Morphing into Contract Drafting Professors, 12 Transactions 127 (2011)

Woodrow Hartzog,  Website Design as Contract, 60 Am. U. L. Rev. 1635 (2011)

Adam J. Hirsch, Freedom of Testation/Freedom of Contract, 95 Minn. L. Rev. 2180 (2011)

John Patrick Hunt, Taking Bubbles Seriously in Contract Law, 61 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 681 (2011) 

Christine Hurt, Regulating Compensation, 6 Entrepren. Bus. L.J. 21 (2011)

William P. Johnson, Understanding Exclusion of the CISG: A New Paradigm of Determining Party Intent,59 Buff. L. Rev. 213 (2011)

Louis Kaplow, On the Meaning of Horizontal Agreements in Competition Law, 99 Cal. L. Rev. 693 (2011)

Won Kidane, Immigration Law As Contract Law. (Reviewing Victor Romero, Everyday Law for Immigrants), 34 Seattle U. L. Rev. 889 (2011)

Juliet P. Kostrisky, Interpretive Risk and Contract Interpretation: A Suggested Approach for Maximizing Value. 2 Elon L. Rev. 109 (2011)

Anne Layne-Farrar, An Economic Defense of Flexibility in IPR Licensing: Contracting around "First Sale" in Multilevel Production Settings, 51 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1149 (2011). 

Stephen J. Leacock, Fingerprints of Equitable Estoppel and Promissory Estoppel on the Statute of Frauds in Contract Law, 2 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. 73 (2011)

Chunlin Leonhard, Subprime Mortgages and the Case for Broadening the Duty of Good Faith, 45 U.S.F. L. Rev. 621 (2011)

Michael H. LeRoy, The New Wages of War--Devaluing Death and Injury: Conceptualizing Euty and Employment in Combat Zones, 22 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 217 (2011)

Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, Will Increased Disclosure Help? Evaluating the Recommendations of the ALI's "Principles of the Law of Software Contracts," 78 U. Chi. L. Rev. 165 (2011)

Carter Anne McGowan, Twittergate: Rethinking the Casting Director Contract, 21 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 365 (2011)

Brittnay M. McMahon, The Science behind Surrogacy: Why New York Should Rethink Its Surrogacy Contracts Laws, 21 Alb. L.J. Sci. & Tech. 359 (2011)

Kemit A. Mawakana, In the Wake of Coast Federal: The Plain Meaning Rule and the Anglo-American Rhetorical Ethic, 11 U. Md. L.J. Race, Religion, Gender & Class 39 (2011)

Roy S. Mitchell, Cultural Sensitivities in International Construction Arbitration, 2 Faulkner L. Rev. 325 (2011)

Terry F. Moritz, and Brandon J. Fitch, The Future of Consumer Arbitration in Light of Stolt-Nielsen. 23 Loy. Consumer L. Rev. 265 (2011)

Jim.Moye, Let's Put the Fear in the FERA! Suggestions to Make the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 a Strong Fraud Deterrent, 35 S. Ill. U. L.J. 421 (2011)

Sondra Bell Nensala, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12: How HSPD-12 May Limit Competition Unnecessarily and Suggestions for Reform, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 619 (2011).

Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Tina L. Stark and Howard Katz, Negotiations, 12 Transactions 153 (2011) 

Raymond T. Nimmer,  Copyright First Sale and the Over-riding Role of Contract. 51 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1311 (2011). 

N. Pieter M. O'Leary, Bullies in the Sandbox: Federal Construction Projects, the Miller Act, and a Material Supplier's Right to Recover Attorney's Fees and Other "Sums Justly Due" under a General Contractor's Payment Bond, 38 Transp. L.J. 1 (2011)

Nathan B. Oman, Consent to Retaliation: A Civil Recourse Theory of Contractual Liability, 96 Iowa Law Review 529 (2011)

Nathan B. Oman How to Judge Shari'a Contracts: A Guide to Islamic Marriage Agreements in American Courts, 2011 Utah L. Rev. 287

Kingsley S. Osei, The Best of Both Worlds: Reciprocal Preference and Punitive Retaliation in Public Contracts, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 715 (2011).

Salvatore Orlando, The Use of Unfair Contractual Terms as an Unfair Commercial Practice, 7 Eur. Rev. of Contract L. 76 (2011)

Heidi Lynn Osterhout, Maj. U.S. Air Force. No More "Mad Money": Salvaging the Commander's Emergency Response Program, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 935 (2011) 

Francesco Parisi, et al., Optimal Remedies for Bilateral Contracts, 40 J. Legal Stud. 245 (2011)

Lisa Penland, David Thomson, Susan Duncan, Karen J. Sneddon and Susan M. Chesler, New Ways to Teach Drafting and Drafting Ethics, 12 Transactions 187 (2011)

Lynn C. Percival, IV, Public Policy Favoritism in the Online World: Contract Voidability Meets The Communications Decency Act, 17 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 165 (2011)

Abigail Lauren Perdue, For Love or Money: An Analysis of the Contractual Regulation of Reproductive Surrogacy, 27 J. Contemp. Health L. & Pol'y 279- (2011).

Ryan Peterson, Regulating the Global Marketplace: Why the U.S. Government Must Revise the Current Rules on Contracting with Foreign-Controlled U.S. Businesses, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 1061 (2011)

Lucille M. Ponte, Getting a Bad Rap? Unconscionability in Clickwrap Dispute Resolution Clauses and a Proposal for Improving the Quality of These Online Consumer "Products," 26 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 119 (2011)

Judith Resnick, Fairness in Numbers: A Comment on AT&T v. Concepcion, Wal-Mart v. Duke, and Turner v. Rogers, 125 Harv. L. Rev. 78 (2011)

David Robbins, et al, Path of an Investigation: How a Major Contractor's Ethics Office and Air Force Procurement Fraud and Suspension/Debarment Apparatus Deal with Allegations of Potential Fraud and Unethical Conduct, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 595 (2011). 

Regina Robson, Paying for Daniel Webster: Critiquing the Contract Model of Advancement of Legal Fees in Criminal Proceedings, 7 Hastings Bus. L.J. 275 (2011)

Victor C. Romero, Immigration Law, Contracts, and Due Process: A Response to Professor Won Kidane's Review of Everyday Law for Immigrants. 34 Seattle U. L. Rev. 903 (2011) 

Guy A. Rub, Contracting around Copyright: The Uneasy Case for Unbundling of Rights in Creative Works, 78 U. Chi. L. Rev. 257 (2011)

Kara M. Sacilotto, Deja Vu All Over Again: Cost-Reimbursement Contracts Fall out of Favor (Again), but Should They? 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 681 (2011).

Jane Scott and Charles Fox, Contract Drafting in 90 Minutes, 12 Transactions 7 (2011)

Daniel P. Selmi, The Contract Transformation in Land Use Regulation, 63 Stan. L. 591 (2011)

Steven L. Schooner, A Random Walk: The Federal Circuit's 2010 Government Contracts Decisions, 60 Am. U. L. Rev. 1067 (2011)

Andrew A. Schwartz,  Consumer Contract Exchanges and the Problem of Adhesion, 28 Yale J. on Reg. 313 (2011)

Jan M. Smits, Rethinking the Usefulness of Mandatory Rights of Withdrawal in Consumer Contract Law: The Right to Change Your Mind? 29 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 671 (2011)

Tina L. Stark, Welcome & Opening Remarks, 12 Transactions 3 (2011)

David F.Tavella and Anne Marie Tavella, Advice and Consent for Federal Judges: a New Alternative Based on Contract Law, 3 Drexel L. Rev. 521 (2011). 

D. A. Jeremy Telman, Langdellian Limericks, 61 J. Legal. Educ. 110 (2011)

Steve Thel and Peter Siegelman, You Do Have to Keep Your Promises: A Disgorgement Theory of Contract Remedies, 52 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1181- (2011)

Marina Tsikun and Kuei-Jung Ni, Using Licensing Contracts to Protect Holders of Traditional Knowledge Related to Genetic Resources -- a Reflection on ICGB Projects, 42 IIC: Int'l Rev. Intell. Prop. & Competition L. 299 (2011)

Megan S. Vahey, A Discussion on the District of Columbia's Procurement Law and the Spark That Led to Renewed Reform Efforts, 14 U.D.C. L. Rev. 115 (2011)

Florian Wagner-von Papp, European Contract Law: Are No Oral Modification Clauses Not Worth the Paper They Are Written On? 63 Current Leg. Problems 511 (2011)

Christine M. Westphal, Restrictive Covenants in Employment Contracts: Regulating Employee Solicitation. 37 J. Legis. 108 (2011)

Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, Breaching the Mortgage Contract: The Behavioral Economics of Strategic Default, 64 Vand. L. Rev. 1547 (2011)

Chris Willett, The Functions of Transparency in Regulating Contract Terms: UK and Australian Approaches, 60 Int'l & Comp. L.Q. 355 (2011). 

John J.Worley, Karl Okamoto and Sherry Porter, Transactional Centers and Certificate Programs, 12 Transactions 299 (2011)

Huma T. Yasin, Playing Catch-up: Proposing the Creation of Status-based Regulations to Bring Private Military Contractor Forms within the Purview of International and Domestic Law. 25 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 411 (2011)

Noah D. Zatz,  Beyond Misclassification: Tackling the Independent Contractor Problem without Redefining Employment. 26 A.B.A. J. Lab. & Emp. L. 279 (2011).

[JT]

Recent Contracts Scholarship Available on SSRN

Interested in the latest contracts scholarship available on the SSRN Contracts and Commercial Law eJournal?  You can find it here.  

In addition, we would like to call attention to some recent scholarship by friend of the blog, Steven Schooner and his crew: 

First, we have Robert D. Anderson, Steven L. Schooner & Collin D. Swan, The WTO's Revised Government Procurement Agreement -- An Important Milestone Toward Greater Market Access and Transparency in Global Public Procurement Markets.  Here is the abstract:

In December of 2011, the Parties to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) adopted significant revisions to the Agreement. The revised Agreement comprises (a) a much-needed modernization of the text of the Agreement, (b) an expansion of related market-access commitments by the Parties, and (c) a set of Future Work Programs intended to enhance transparency among the Parties and improve the administration of the Agreement. In these unstable economic times, the importance of the GPA and its improvements cannot be overstated.

This article also bemoans the media's misrepresentation of the ongoing process of China's negotiated accession into the GPA. China continues to invest resources in upgrading its public procurement regime as it negotiates with the GPA Parties to open its government purchasing markets to systematic international competition.

Second, we have Collin D. Swan, Dead Letter Prohibitions and Policy Failures: Applying Government Ethics Standards to Personal Services Contracts.  Here is the abstact:

 The last two decades have been marked by numerous political efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce and declare the end of the “era of big government.” These efforts left the federal government strapped for personnel and resources and have forced many agencies to increasingly rely on service contractors in general, and personal services contractors in particular, to fulfill their mandates. According to the Federal Acquisition Regulations, a personal services contract is a contract that creates an employer-employee relationship between the contractor and the federal government. Despite a longstanding — and, arguably, outdated — regulatory prohibition on the use of personal services contracts, many agencies are increasingly employing personal services contractors in positions traditionally reserved for government employees. The result is an absurd situation in which government ethics laws apply differently to service contractors and federal employees who work alongside each other, perform similar discretionary tasks, and have the same potential to engage in corrupt practices.

This Note argues that the personal services prohibition represents an outdated and inefficient method of protecting the government’s interest and should be abolished. Given the government’s current reliance on service contractors, procurement officials should not be concerned with whether a contract creates an employment relationship with the government, but instead with whether contractor personnel are being properly managed and supervised. Congress should thus explicitly abolish the personal services prohibition and apply government ethics laws to personal services contractors. This would reduce the ability of personal services contractors, who often perform discretionary functions on the government’s behalf, to act in their own personal interest to the detriment of the government’s mission.

[JT]