ContractsProf Blog

Weekly Top Tens from the Social Science Research Council

RECENT HITS (for all papers announced in the last 60 days) 
TOP 10 Papers for Journal of Contracts & Commercial Law eJournal 
October 27, 2012 to December 26, 2012

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	352	The Cross-Border Freedom of Form Principle Under Reservation: The Role of Articles 12 and 96 CISG in Theory and Practice  Ulrich G. Schroeter,  University of Mannheim - Faculty of Law
2	306	Libertarianism, Law and Economics, and the Common Law  Todd J. Zywicki,  George Mason University - School of Law, Faculty
3	219	Losing the Paper – Mortgage Assignments, Note Transfers and Consumer Protection  Alan M. White,  City University of New York (CUNY) - School of Law
4	181	CISG and CESL  Ulrich Magnus,  c/o Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
5	125	Lewellyn Slept Here: A Short History of Sticky Contracts and Feudalism  Cheryl B. Preston, Eli McCann,  Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School, Unaffiliated Authors - Independent
6	116	Sovereign Immunity and Sovereign Debt  Mark C. Weidemaier,  University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - School of Law
7	112	Contracting About Private Benefits of Control  Ronald J. Gilson, Alan Schwartz,  Stanford Law School, Yale Law School
8	107	The Historical Origins of America's Mortgage Laws  Andra C. Ghent,  Arizona State University (ASU) - Finance Department
9	106	Commercial Sales: The Common European Sales Law Compared to the Vienna Sales Convention  Marco Loos, Harriët Schelhaas,  University of Amsterdam - Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL), Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN
10	105	Monism and Dualism in International Commercial Arbitration: Overcoming Barriers to Consistent Application of Principles of Public International Law  S.I. Strong,  University of Missouri School of Law

RECENT HITS (for all papers announced in the last 60 days) 
TOP 10 Papers for Journal of LSN: Contracts (Topic)  
October 27, 2012 to December 26, 2012

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	352	The Cross-Border Freedom of Form Principle Under Reservation: The Role of Articles 12 and 96 CISG in Theory and Practice  Ulrich G. Schroeter,  University of Mannheim - Faculty of Law
2	218	Losing the Paper – Mortgage Assignments, Note Transfers and Consumer Protection  Alan M. White,  City University of New York (CUNY) - School of Law
3	181	CISG and CESL  Ulrich Magnus,  c/o Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
4	125	Lewellyn Slept Here: A Short History of Sticky Contracts and Feudalism  Cheryl B. Preston, Eli McCann,  Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School, Unaffiliated Authors - Independent
5	106	Commercial Sales: The Common European Sales Law Compared to the Vienna Sales Convention  Marco Loos, Harriët Schelhaas,  University of Amsterdam - Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL), Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN
6	96	An EU Law for Cross-Border Sales Only – Its Meaning and Implications in Open Markets  Jürgen Basedow,  Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
7	88	A People's History of Collective Action Clauses  Mark C. Weidemaier, G. Mitu Gulati,  University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - School of Law, Duke University - School of Law
8	78	Contract Theory and the Failures of Public-Private Contracting  Wendy Netter Epstein, Wendy Netter Epstein,  Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago-Kent College of Law, Kirkland & Ellis
9	62	Set in Stone? Change and Innovation in Consumer Standard Form Contracts  Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, Robert Brendan Taylor,  New York University (NYU) - School of Law, Kirkland & Ellis
10	57	A Plea for European Conflict Rules on Proprietary Security  Ulrich Drobnig,  Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Private Law

[JT]

Holiday Blog Round Up

We have been relatively quiet these past few days as we focus on digestion and other festive activities.  But other law bloggers have been busy.

Over at Prawfsblawg, Jeff Lipshaw (pictured, left) has an extended discussion of "legal realism" and contracts pedagogy, and a few other prawfs jump in with interesting comments.

Meanwhile, over at Concurring Opinions, Gaia Bernstein (pictured right) has a post on legislative prohibitions on egg and sperm donor anonymity and the impact of such prohibitions on surrogacy.  According to Bernstein, such prohibitions are common abroad and are gaining ground in the U.S.  She has an article on the subject, which can be found here.

Also at Concurring Opinions, Dave Hoffman has this short post about a provision in credit agreements providing that collection calls are not to be treated as "unsolicited."  Dave suggests that screening calls from one's bank might then be construed as a breach of contract, but a comment suggests that the provision only protects the bank against any allegation that it has violated "do not call" list regulations.

[JT]

Ohio Supreme Court Finds Claim by Foreign Student Time Barred

In September 1993, Mohamed Bassem Rayess, having graduated from a Syrian medical school and completed a residency in France, applied to United States Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (the Commission) to take Part I of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), which is split into four, three-hour exams administered over a two day period.  Dr. Rayess took that exam and failed.  

Fifteen years later, Dr. Rayess sued the Commission, alleging that it had failed to allow him the full time for his exam.  For some reason, Ohio has a fifteen year statute of limitations for claims of breach of a written contract.  Dr. Rayess attached to his complaint: 1) a copy of his application to take the USMLE and an acknowledgement of its receipt; 2) his letter enclosing payment for the exam and a copy of his cancelled check; 3) a transfer request (to take the exam at a different site) and evidence of payment for the transfer; 4) a copy of an informational pamphlet provided by the Comission and a confirmation regarding Dr. Rayess's test site; and 5) an account statement provided by the Commission, reflecting his payments.

The trial court found that these documents did not establish an express, written contract and dismissed the case base on the lapse of the six-year statute of limitations that applies to allegations of breach of an oral promise.  An intermediate appellate court reinstated the claim.  In Rayess v. Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed and reinstated the trial court's dismissal of Dr. Rayess's suit.  In the suit, the Commission asked the Supreme Court to rule on the following proposition:

A written contract cannot exist when it is based on a general informational brochure coupled with supplemental evidence to establish the obligations of the parties.

 The Supreme Court found that the documents that Dr. Rayess attached to his complaint did not suffice to establish a written contract.  "Rather, the commission provided Rayess with an informational pamphlet describing the testing procedure, and Rayess submitted an application to take the examination. Neither the pamphlet nor the application imposed any express enforceable duty on the commission or Rayess."  More specifically, the Commission made no express, written promises about test conditions or times.  As a result the case was a dismissed, which is a shame, because it would have been very interesting to see how Dr. Rayess was going to prove that he was not allowed adequate time to complete his exam fifteen years ago.

[JT]