ContractsProf Blog

February in Las Vegas ...

Call for Participation and Proposals
Spring Contracts Conference
William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV
Las Vegas, Nevada
February 26 & 27, 2010

In the spirit of the fine International Conferences on Contracts that Frank Snyder launched and helped organize in Fort Worth, Houston, and Sacramento, UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law will host a two-day conference designed to afford contracts scholars and teachers at all experience levels (including those preparing to enter the academy and those whose primary teaching appointment is not in a law school) an opportunity to present/demonstrate and discuss (formally and informally) recently-published and accepted-but-not-yet-published scholarship, works-in-progress, as-yet-fully-formed ideas for scholarship, and pedagogical innovations, and to network with colleagues -- and potential collaborators or mentors -- from around the country and the rest of the (predominantly) common-law world.

Invitation: We invite paper, presentation, and panel proposals exploring any aspect of contract law, theory, and policy writ large (including, but not limited to, bankruptcy/insolvency, commercial law, consumer law, dispute resolution regimes, family law, insurance law, legal systems, and restitution, in addition to more traditional contract topics) from a behavioral, comparative, critical, doctrinal, economic, empirical, equitable, historical, institutional, interdisciplinary, jurisprudential, pedagogical, philosophical, policy-driven, or political perspective. We also solicit volunteers to serve as moderators or discussants for panels that are not "packaged deals."

The CFPs issued earlier this year for the AALS Contracts Section's January annual meeting program on New Approaches to Teaching Contracts: A “Teach-In” and the AALS Commercial and Related Consumer Law Section's January annual meeting program on The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes of Article 2B and UCITA? each yielded more excellent proposals than either section could accommodate in New Orleans. Both topics remain quite relevant, and I hope to assemble one or more panels on each that will continue the conversations begun in New Orleans. I am also working on the opening plenary, my UNLV colleague Jeff Stempel is organizing a panel on insurance contracts, and Wayne Barnes (Texas Wesleyan) is organizing a panel on comparative contract law and theory. Those efforts, if all bear fruit, still leave room for many more presenters, moderators, and discussants.

We will try to accommodate as many presenters, moderators, and discussants as possible. We particularly encourage junior scholars and those who work in non-U.S. legal systems to propose papers or panels and to volunteer to serve as a discussant or moderator. We also welcome anyone who wishes to attend the conference without presenting or serving as a discussant or moderator. The educational and networking benefits alone are worth the price of admission.

Publication: There is no publication requirement for conference participants, although experience suggests that individual papers and panels often find good homes. The Nevada Law Journal encourages participants to submit individual and panel papers and hopes to publish several works from the conference in upcoming issues.

Likely Attendees: In addition to those already mentioned, as of November 30, the following have either committed or expressed a strong desire to attend: Eniola Akindemowo (Thomas Jefferson), Roy Anderson (SMU), Dan Barnhizer (Michigan State), Charles Calleros (Arizona State), Hazel Glenn Beh (Hawaii), Barbara Bucholtz (Tulsa), Scott Burnham (Montana/Ohio State), Gerald Caplan (McGeorge), Miriam Cherry (McGeorge), Carol Chomsky (Minnesota), Karen Halverson Cross (John Marshall), Sidney DeLong (Seattle), Larry DiMatteo (Florida, Warrington College of Business), Jay Feinman (Rutgers-Camden), Marjorie Florestal (McGeorge), David A. Friedman (Willamette), Larry Garvin (Ohio State), Danielle Kie Hart (Southwestern), Nicholas Johnson (Fordham), Yong-Sung Jonathan Kang (U. of Washington), Nancy Kim (Cal Western), Tadas Klimas (Lithuania), Chuck Knapp (UC-Hastings), George Kuney (Tennessee), Peter Linzer (Houston), Charles Martin (Florida Coastal), Jennifer Martin (Oregon), Meredith Miller (Touro), Marcy Peek (Whittier), Joe Perillo (Fordham), Lydie N. Pierre-Louis (St. Thomas, Florida), Deborah Post (Touro), Michael Pratt (Queen's University, Ontario), Cheryl Preston (BYU), Scott Pryor (Regent), Val Ricks (South Texas), Caprice Roberts (West Virginia), Irma Russell (Tulsa), Adam Scales (Washington & Lee), Andrew Schwartz (Colorado), Sean Scott (Loyola-L.A.), Otto Stockmeyer (Cooley), Howard Walthall (Cumberland), Jarrod Wong (Pacific), and Debbie Zalesne (CUNY).

Proposals: To propose a presentation or panel, please e-mail a title, brief description, and any supporting materials by January 4, 2010 to keith.rowley@unlv.edu (or snail-mail it to me at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 451003, Las Vegas, NV 89154-1003).  If you would like to discuss or moderate, please let me know your interests and availability by January 4.  We will evaluate all proposals, and try to accommodate all requests to discuss or moderate, received by January 4; we will entertain proposals and requests received after January 4 on a space-available basis.

Preliminary Schedule: The conference program will begin both Friday and Saturday morning no later than 9:00 a.m. (grazing and conversational opportunities will start earlier) and should run until 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. each day.

Accommodations: The Hyatt Place adjacent to campus (4520 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89169) is holding a block of rooms at the rate of $118.00 per night (plus tax). The official deadline for hotel registration at the conference rate is January 25, 2010. However, I encourage you to book sooner, as we blocked a limited number of rooms (due to The Hyatt Place requiring the law school to guarantee at least 80% occupancy and pay the difference if actual registration was less than we anticipate) and will be more likely to induce The Hyatt Place to make the conference rate available to additional attendees if early registration is robust.

To book a conference-rate room at The Hyatt Place, go to www.lasvegas.place.hyatt.com; choose a check-in date no earlier than February 25, 2010 and a check-out date no later than February 28, 2010; enter group code G-BOYD in the box labeled Group/Corporate #; hit the check availability button; if a room is available, verify that Boyd School of Law Contracts Conference appears next to rate details and, if everything matches, then hit book. If you have trouble booking online, or if you prefer to reserve a room over the phone, please call the hotel at (702) 369-3366.

Transportation: For attendees who stay at the conference hotel, The Hyatt Place provides airport shuttle service and we will provide transportation between The Hyatt Place and the law school for those not wanting to walk the mile or so. Attendees who prefer to stay on The Strip or elsewhere are responsible for their own ground transportation.

Sustenance: Your registration fee will cover the costs of lunches both days and a reception and dinner Friday evening, as well as coffee, fruit, and baked goods each morning and cold beverage service and morsels each afternoon. The Hyatt Place also offers a complimentary continental breakfast, which might be particularly attractive to those whose body clocks are on Eastern or Central Time (or earlier).

Registration: We're still finalizing the conference registration fee and process. The registration fee will be no more than $250. This is higher than past spring contracts conferences, in part because some law school publishers, in light of the ongoing economic crisis, have not subsidized the conference to the extent they have in past years. Fortunately, the relatively low conference hotel rate (compared to prior conferences), free airport transportation for those staying at the conference hotel, and the relative ease and low cost of flying into and out of Las Vegas's McCarran Airport (which is less than two miles from the hotel) compared to prior venues, will offset the higher registration fee.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at keith.rowley@unlv.edu or call me at (702) 895-4993.

[Keith A. Rowley]

AALS Program and Print Symposium on Teaching Contracts

The AALS Section on Contracts invites you to attend our Annual Meeting program on New Approaches to Teaching Contracts: A Teach-In and solicits additional proposals for a companion symposium issue to appear in the Washington Law Review.

The Topic: Responding to profound changes in the practice of law and in our larger culture, many Contracts professors strive to update their methods and materials.  In the spirit of the Annual Meeting’s transformative law theme, our program will explore a variety of new approaches that contracts professors have begun to introduce in the classroom and in teaching materials to address both changes in the structure of practice that require new lawyers to hit the ground running and ways that wired students synthesize material and acquire skills.  We hope that the program, as a whole, will motivate experienced contracts professors to de-laminate their notes and inspire newer professors to move beyond their own professors in developing new ways to convey the beauty, complexity, and occasional imperfections of contract law.

The Program: Our annual meeting program, scheduled for Friday, January 8, 10:30 AM to 12:15 PM, Melrose Room, Third Floor, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, will feature Douglas Baird (Chicago) on the Langdellian, classic-case-centered method; Scott Burnham (Montana) on using drafting exercises to develop both skills and doctrinal understanding; Carol Chomsky (Minnesota) or Christina Kunz (William Mitchell) on their contribution to Thomson/West’s new Interactive Casebook Series, Contracts: A Contemporary Approach (West forthcoming 2010); Jonathan Hyman (Rutgers-Newark) on "Teaching Contracts with Student Role-Play Arbitrations"; Emily Kadens (Texas) on adapting the problem-based method more commonly used in upper-level commercial law courses to the first-year Contracts course; Shruti Rana (Maryland) on "Integrating Cross-border Perspectives on Contract Law: Comparing US and International Perspectives on Acceptances;" and Deborah Schmedemann (William Mitchell) on "Actual Reality: Peopling the Contracts Course."

The Print Symposium: The Washington Law Review will publish a print symposium in its November 2010 issue, which will include papers from most of our presenters, papers selected from among those who responded to our initial call for proposals, as well as others from whom we solicited contributions, and some shorter responses and replies.

How to Submit a Paper or Proposal: We may be able to accommodate on a space-available basis a limited number of additional short (15-20 pages) papers, responses, and replies in the symposium issue.  If you would like to contribute please e-mail an abstract, précis, or draft by Monday, December 14, 2009 to the Planning Subcommittee: Martha Ertman (Maryland), Lisa Bernstein (Chicago), and Keith Rowley(UNLV).  Please direct your submission to all three of our email addresses: mertman@law.umaryland.edu, lbernst621@aol.com, and keith.rowley@unlv.edu, respectively.  The Planning Committee and members of the law review's editorial board will review all timely submissions and offer publication to any we can accommodate.

[Keith A. Rowley]

AALS Program and Print Symposium on the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts

The AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law invites you to attend our Annual Meeting program on The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes of Article 2B and UCITA? and solicits additional proposals for a companion symposium issue to be published in the Tulane Law Review.

The Topic: On May 19, 2009, the ALI approved the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts, which undertake to weave the currently divergent threads of law governing software contracts into a coherent whole that will guide parties in drafting, performing, and enforcing software contracts, assist courts and other arbiters in resolving disputes involving software contracts, and, perhaps, inform future legislation addressing software contracts. Do the Principles clarify the law of software contracts? Will they successfully unify the law of software contracts? Are they consistent with current best practices in software contracting? Will they encourage desirable future developments in the law and practice of software contracts? These are among the questions our program speakers will address.

The Program: The Commercial and Related Consumer Law Section's annual meeting program, scheduled for Saturday, January 9, 10:30 AM to 12:15 PM, in the Magnolia Room, Third Floor, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, will feature Principles Reporter Bob Hillman (Cornell) and Associate Reporter Maureen O’Rourke (Boston U.), who will offer their unique insights on the drafting process, key substantive provisions, and their legal and practical implications; Amy Boss (Drexel), who will add her insights about the failures of the UCC Article 2B project and UCITA and the prospects for the Principles’ success; Juliet Moringiello (Widener), who will discuss her and co-author Bill Reynolds's (Maryland) paper "What's Software Got to Do With It?," offering their perspectives on the Principles process, largely ignoring past efforts and debates, and addressing some of the assumptions underlying the Principles and how they address those assumptions; and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler (NYU), who will discuss her and co-author Yannis Bakos's (NYU Stern School of Business) paper "How Much Does Disclosure Matter?," which delves deeper into the value of disclosure -- an important assumption underlying the Principles and a subject the Principles tackle substantively -- and augments the conceptual discussion with empirical analysis.

The Symposium Issue: The Tulane Law Review will publish a print symposium issue including papers from most of our presenters, papers selected from among those who responded to our initial call for proposals as well as others from whom we solicited contributions, and some shorter responses and replies. We can accommodate a limited number of additional papers, responses, and replies in the symposium issue, which is scheduled to go to press in late summer 2010.

How to Submit a Paper or Proposal: If you would like to contribute to the print symposium, and want your proposal to receive full consideration, please e-mail an abstract, précis, or draft by Monday, December 14, 2009 to Professor Keith A. Rowley, Chair of the AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law. E-mail: keith.rowley@unlv.edu. We may consider submissions received after December 14 on a space-available basis. Executive Committee members and the Tulane Law Review's symposium editors will review all timely submissions and notify no later than Monday, January 11, 2010 those authors we would like to contribute to the print symposium.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Save the Dates: February 26-27, 2010

Having skipped 2009 because of scheduling conflicts at the intended host school, UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law is planning to host the Fifth International Contracts Conference (or its likeness) on February 26 and 27, 2010.  More details and a call for proposals to follow.

UPDATE: Please note that my initial post indicated February 27 & 28.  We'll stick with the Friday-Saturday schedule that has worked well at the prior conferences.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals

AALS Section on Contracts

New Approaches to Teaching Contracts: A “Teach-In”

2010 AALS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana

The Section on Contracts solicits proposals for its Annual Meeting program, New Approaches to Teaching Contracts: A “Teach-In,” scheduled for Friday, January 8, 2010, at 10:30 a.m., and for a planned print symposium to follow.

The Topic: Responding to profound changes in the practice of law and in our larger culture, many Contracts professors strive to update their methods and materials.  In the spirit of the Annual Meeting’s transformative theme, our program will explore a variety of new approaches that contracts professors have begun to introduce in the classroom and in teaching materials to address both changes in the structure of practice that require new lawyers to hit the ground running and ways that wired students synthesize material and acquire skills.  We hope that the program, as a whole, will motivate experienced contracts professors to de-laminate their notes and inspire newer professors to move beyond their own professors in developing new ways to convey the beauty, complexity, and occasional imperfections of contract law.

The Program: The roundtable discussion will feature professors demonstrating a variety of pedagogical approaches.  Invited presenters include: Douglas Baird (Chicago), on the Langdellian method centering on classic cases; Scott Burhnam (Montana), on using drafting exercises to develop both skills and doctrinal understanding; Carol Chomsky (Minnesota) or Christina Kunz (William Mitchell), on their contribution to West’s Interactive Casebook Series, Contracts: A Contemporary Approach (West forthcoming 2009); and Emily Kadens (Texas) on adapting the problem-based method more commonly used in upper-level commercial law courses to the first-year Contracts course.  We seek two more presenters on innovative approaches to teaching Contracts.  Presentations should demonstrate (rather than merely describe) teaching methods, perhaps distributing or illustrating any relevant materials through PowerPoint or other means.  Each presentation should last 10-15 minutes, though we realize it will likely be taken from a larger work or set of materials.

The Symposium: We are working to identify a journal that will provide the best outlet in which to publish papers from our presenters, as well as additional contributions from those who respond to this call for proposals.  We have begun discussions with the Journal of Legal Education and welcome your suggestions about other venues for the print symposium.

How to Submit a Proposal: Please submit a title, brief description, and any supporting materials no later than SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 to the Planning Subcommittee: Martha Ertman (Maryland), Lisa Bernstein (Chicago), and Keith Rowley (UNLV).  Please direct your submission to all three of our email addresses: mertman@law.umaryland.edu, lbernst621@aol.com, and keith.rowley@unlv.edu, respectively.  We will select two proposals for the Annual Meeting program from those submitted and notify their authors by October 1, 2009.  Once we secure a publication commitment, we will begin contacting additional proposal authors to discuss contributing to the print symposium.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals

AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law

 

“The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts:

A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes of Article 2B and UCITA?”

 

2010 AALS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana

The Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law invites proposals for the Section’s 2010 AALS Annual Meeting program and a print symposium to follow on the topic “The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes of Article 2B and UCITA?”

The Topic: Contracts concerning computer software have presented difficult legal issues for many years.  Although software is often bought and sold like goods, software contracts do not fit easily into the sale of goods rubric of Uniform Commercial Code Article 2.  In the 1990s, the American Law Institute (ALI) and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) sought to address special issues concerning software contracts by developing a new UCC Article 2B.  This effort failed because of fundamental disagreements about the substance of important rules.  NCCUSL (now known as the Uniform Law Commission, or ULC) then carried forward the project on its own and, in 1999, promulgated the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), providing a comprehensive (and controversial) set of rules for licensing computer information.  To date, only Maryland and Virginia have enacted UCITA, and the ULC has ceased promoting additional enactments.

A new software contracts project has emerged in Article 2B’s and UCITA’s wake: the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts.  On May 19, the ALI approved the Principles, which undertake to weave the currently divergent threads of law governing software contracts into a coherent whole that will guide parties in drafting, performing, and enforcing software contracts, assist courts and other arbiters in resolving disputes involving software contracts, and, perhaps, inform future legislation addressing software contracts.  Do the Principles clarify the law of software contracts?  Will they successfully unify the law of software contracts?  Are they consistent with current best practices in software contracting?  Will they encourage desirable future developments in the law and practice of software contracts?  These are among the questions we hope our program speakers and symposium contributors will address.

The Program: Principles Reporter Bob Hillman (Cornell) and Associate Reporter Maureen O’Rourke (Boston U.) will offer their unique insights on the Principles’ drafting, key substantive provisions, and their legal and practical implications.  Amy Boss (Drexel), who was intimately involved with both Article 2B and UCITA and has been an adviser on the Principles, will add her own insights about the prior efforts’ failures and the prospects for the Principles’ success.  We seek one or more additional speakers who will offer their perspectives on the Principles, the economic, historical, policy, and political forces that motivated and shaped them, and their likely impact on the law and practice of software transactions.

The Symposium: We are working to identify a law review that will provide the best outlet in the which to publish papers from our presenters as well as a number of additional papers from those who respond to this call for proposals and others from whom we are soliciting contributions.  In addition to contributions from a broader cross-section of legal scholars than we can offer the opportunity to speak at the annual meeting, we hope that the print symposium will also include articles from interested judges, practitioners, and others.  We currently anticipate that finished papers would be due in late spring or summer 2010 for publication in late 2010 or early 2011.

How to Submit a Proposal: If you would like to present or contribute, please e-mail an abstract, précis, or draft by August 29, 2009 to Professor Keith A. Rowley, Chair of the Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law.  E-mail: keith.rowley@unlv.edu.  The Executive Committee will review all submissions and notify by October 1, 2009 those we would like to present their topics at the annual meeting and those additional authors we would like to contribute to the print symposium.

[Keith A. Rowley]

AALS Workshop on Transactional Law

You may want to mark your calendars for next June's AALS Workshop on Transactional Law, June 10-12, in scenic Long Beach, California.  If you go, keep your eyes open for flying buses and '67 Shelby GTs.  (Both scenes are set in or entering Long Beach; and yes, the dialogue in the second one is in Español.)  The workshop is part of the AALS Mid-Year Meeting.  Program details are not yet available on the AALS web site.  However, the November AALS News provides the following description, as well as a list of topic and speakers and registration information that you can access by clicking this link.

“Transactional law” refers to the various substantive legal rules that influence or constrain planning, negotiating, and document drafting in connection with business transactions, as well as the “law of the deal” (i.e., the negotiated contracts) produced by the parties to those transactions. Traditionally, the law school curriculum has emphasized litigation over transactional law. However, many modern lawyers serve corporate clients, and a significant percentage of lawyers engage in some form of transactional practice. Hence, law schools must place greater emphasis on training law students to be transactional lawyers, and should support law faculty engaged in scholarship focused on transactional law. To this end, in 1994, the AALS held a workshop on the transactional approach to law, which sparked experimentation and innovation in teaching and scholarship related to transactional law. Since that time, there have been significant developments in transactional law. This Workshop not only will take stock of those developments, but also will enable participants to gain some in-depth perspective regarding the relative benefits and drawbacks of those developments.

Law schools have attempted to respond to the demand for increased transactional training in a variety of ways, from integrating transactional law into traditional law school courses to developing stand alone “Deals” or “Business Planning” courses. A number of law schools have developed innovative programs in transactional law.  This Workshop will enable participants to discuss specific methods of teaching transactional skills with an eye towards ferreting out best practices. Should professors interested in teaching transactional law focus on substantive law, “transactional skills,” (i.e., planning, negotiating, and drafting), economic or other theories of business transactions, or all of the above? Should transactional skills be taught in separate courses or integrated into substantive courses?  If taught in separate courses, should such courses be part of the first-year curriculum, integrated throughout the three years, or focused on the upper-level curriculum?  How do you modify or supplement the traditional case method to teach students useful transactional skills?  The Workshop also will explore the challenges and benefits that arise for those who write or would like to write transactional scholarship.  And as initial matter, the Workshop will address how best to define “transactional scholarship” in a way that accurately captures the potential breadth and depth of transactional law, and how transactional scholarship differs from traditional legal scholarship.

The Workshop also will explore best practices for writing scholarship in this area, including methodologies for researching the legal, financial and practical effects of various corporate transactions. The Workshop will feature concurrent works-in-progress sessions, enabling participants to exchange ideas and insights regarding new scholarship related to transactional law.

One important goal of the Workshop is to bring together faculty from different doctrinal areas of law, including faculty who teach in the clinical setting.  Transactional law touches many substantive areas of law, and it is closely identified with bankruptcy, business associations, contracts, commercial law, intellectual property, labor and employment law, securities regulation, and taxation.  The Workshop will provide a unique opportunity for faculty members to make connections between their primary fields and transactional law, and thus should appeal to a broad spectrum of scholars and teachers.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Poetic Meter and Fault in Contracts Law

Our own Keith Rowley was on the program for the conference on Fault in Contract Law held this past weekend at the University of Chicago Law School, with the papers to be published in the Michigan Law Review. I will therefore leave it to Keith to report on those proceedings in detail. But I do feel that one aspect of the conference falls clearly within my jurisdiction -- that is, the intersection between contracts law and poetry. George M. Cohen (pictured) noted at the beginning of his presentation that the title of his conference paper, "The Fault that Lies within Our Contract Law," is iambic pentameter. Judge Richard Posner's title, on the other hand, "Let Us Never Blame a Contract Breaker," is also pentameter, but beginning with a stressed syllable, Posner's meter is trochaic rather than iambic. The difference, Cohen remarked, between those who, like him, believe that there is room for discussion of fault in contract law and those who, like Posner, would banish notions of morality from the law, is really one of emphasis. Professor Cohen had a very good day when he realized that he could indicate that point by contrasting his own title with that of Judge Posner.

Another highlight of the conference: Judge Posner praised Oliver Wendell Holmes' The Common Law and especially the option theory of contract contained therein. Chicago's Richard Epstein objected that Holmes' book is incoherent, and he could not imagine why anyone would seek to rely on Holmes as a source for a comprehensive approach to contracts. There was some uneasiness in the room as these formidable scholars prepared to lock horns, but Judge Posner evaded the controversy, conceding that there was only one person in the room about whom people living 127 years now from would say that he had a completely coherent approach to the law. Professor Epstein received Judge Posner's bon mots with his wonted grace.

[Jeremy Telman]

Fault in Contract Law

Here's the updated programmatic schedule for the symposium on "Fault in Contract Law" later this month at the University of Chicago School of Law:

Friday, September 26

9:00 Opening Remarks

9:15–10:45 Panel I
Chair: Douglas Baird (Chicago)
Eric Posner (Chicago), Fault In Contract Law
Roy Kreitner (Tel Aviv), Fault at the Contract-Tort Interface

11:00–12:30 Panel II
Chair: Lee Fennell (Chicago)
Ariel Porat (Tel Aviv), A Comparative Fault Defense in Contract Law
Saul Levmore (Chicago), Stipulated Damages, Super-Strict Liability, and the Real Rule of Contract Remedies

2:00–4:00 Panel III
Chair: Lisa Bernstein (Chicago)
Richard Craswell (Stanford), When is Willful Breach ‘Willful’? A Puzzle and Two Different Economic Solutions
Oren Bar-Gill (NYU) & Omri Ben-Shahar (Chicago), An Information-Based Theory of Willful Breach
Peter Siegelman (Connecticut) & Steven Thel (Fordham), Willfulness versus Expectation: A Promisor-Based Defense of Willful Breach Doctrine

4:15–5:45 Panel IV
Chair: Lior Strahilevitz (Chicago)
Stephan Grundmann (Humboldt-Berlin), The Fault Principle as the Chameleon of Contract Law: A Market Function Approach
Seana Shiffrin (UCLA), Why Breach of Contract May Be Immoral

Saturday, September 27

9:00–10:30 Panel V
Chair: Ariel Porat (Tel Aviv)
Richard Epstein (Chicago), The Many Different Faces of Fault in Contract Law: Or How to Do Economics Right, without Really Trying
George Cohen (Virginia), The Fault that Lies Within Our Contract Law

10:45–12:30  Panel VI
Chair: Keith Rowley (UNLV)
Robert Scott (Columbia), In (Partial) Defense of Strict Liability in Contract, presented and discussed by Fabrizio Cafaggi (European University Institute)
Hon. Richard Posner (Chicago), Let Us Never Blame a Contract Breaker

Admission to the symposium is free (except for Friday dinner) and all are welcome.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Drafting Conference at Emory Law School

On May 30-31, 2008, Emory Law School will be hosting a conference entitled "Teaching Drafting and Transactional Skills: The Basics and Beyond."  Given recent discussions on this blog (here) and recently scholarship on the subject (noted here) and scholarly interest in the subject evidenced by other conferences such as the one noted here,  this seems a timely event. 

More information on the conference is available here.

[Jeremy Telman]

Consumer Law Conference at the University of Houston Law Center

More than 30 experts from around the world will converge in Houston on May 23rd and 24th, 2008 to discuss issues of importance to any comsumer law professor at a conference entitled "Teaching Consumer Law -- The Who, What, Where, Why, When and How."

The conference will look at issues such as: what materials should be used in teaching consumer law; alternative teaching methods; new developments in consumer law; innovative ways to look at traditional consumer problems; global approaches to consumer regulation; and how consumers can collect attorneys fees. 

This conference comes with a special bonus: conference participants are invited to watch the Houston Astros play the Philadelphia Phillies.  Information and a registration form are available here or you can call Professor Richard Alderman at 713-743-2165.

Jeremy Telman

Poverty Law Conference at Valparaiso University

I am told that the Valparaiso University School of Law's Foreclosure Conference announced previously on this blog is already oversubscribed.

Those of you who would still like to experience Spring in Indiana might want to attend our Conference on Law, Poverty and Economic Inequality to be held April 3-4, 2008.  Contrary to the information on the aforelinked webpage, those interested in registering should contact Melissa Mundt at 219-465-7847 or via e-mail at Melissa.Mundt@valpo.edu. 

[Jeremy Telman]

Foreclosure Conference at Valparaiso

My colleague, Alan White, has organized a one-day conference, "Defending Foreclsosures, Saving Homes," to be held Friday, March 29, 2008 at the Valparaiso University School of Law.  Conference participants will learn about the latest developments in foreclosure and bankruptcy, loss mitigation and mortgage servicer practices. Attorneys interested in representing homeowners will learn the nuts and bolts of the Indiana foreclosure process, explore effective claims and defenses available to homeowners,  and learn how to present workout and loan modification proposals to mortgage servicers. Housing counselors will learn more about judicial foreclosure in Indiana and options available to homeowners at each stage of the process. Architects of the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network will be on hand to explain the IFPN initiatives—including the recently established hotline and referral network. 

The full brochure can be found here.  Registration is free and can be accomplished with a call to Faye Jackson at 1-877-VALPOLAW or an e-mail to Faye.Jackson@valpo.edu.

[Jeremy Telman]

Call for Papers: Security and Privacy Issues in IT

Those whose work touches on electronic commerce and related issues may be interested in the upcoming Third International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues in IT, which will be held at the University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic, on September 3-5, 2008.  The conference topics run the gamut of security and privacy issues that arise in the electronic world.

Deadline for submitting papers is August 1, 2008.  The Call for Papers is here.

[Frank Snyder]

CISG Conference at Touro Law Center

While Frank is on the topic of conferences at Touro, I should mention the CISG conference which my colleague Jack Graves has organized. It will be held on Friday, April 11, 2008. All the relevant details: here.

[Meredith R. Miller]

Call for Papers: Business Law and Technology

If you're working in the areas of law and technology, you'll be interested in the upcoming 2nd Annual Conference on Business, Law, & Technology, scheduled for June 17-19, 2008, at the Jacob Fuchsberg Law Center at Touro College in New York (left)  The conference is "an opportunity for academics, practitioners and consultants from different backgrounds to come together and exchange ideas for discussing key developments in Business, Law and Technology."

The Call for Papers -- the deadline for which is May 5 -- covers a broad array of topics, including Sales of Goods, Electronic Signatures, Contract Law, Media & Entertainment, Consumer Protection, Arbitration, E-marketing, E-business, and Cyberlaw.

You can visit the conference web site here.

[Frank Snyder -- thanks to Juliet Moringiello]

A Good Time Was Had By All

Last weekend, dozens of Contracts professors and other cool cats gathered in sunny Sacramento for the Fourth International Conference on Contracts, hosted this year by the University of the Pacific's McGeorge College of Law.  Well-organized once again by ContractsProf blogmeister and conference impresario Frank Snyder, the conference featured an array of scintillating panels Friday and Saturday, the premiere of Judith Maute's documentary film about Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co., 382 P.2d 109 (Okla. 1962), and a lifetime achievement award for Joe Perillo.

Stetson University College of Law will host next year's conference in coastal Gulfport, Florida, scheduled for February 6-7, 2009.  Watch this blog and the AALS Contracts list serve for a call for papers and panels.

[Keith A. Rowley]

Restitution Conference Announcement

On Friday, December 14, 2007, the University of Washington and Lee, Lexington, Virginia, will host a "Roundtable on Restitution and Unjust Enrichment in North America." This information from Professor Eoin O'Dell:

The main point underpinning the Roundtable is to get North American (ie, Canadian and US) Restitution scholars, practitioners, judges and others with an interest in the subject, together in one place, talking about current legal issues in the Law of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment. There seem to be too few opportunities to do so, except on the margins of other more generally focused events. The hope is that this informal Roundtable will provide just such a context. Given that the ALI's Restatement Third of Restitution is at a crucial stage, and that the Supreme Court of Canada's recent case law is proving controversial, this would seem an opportune time.

There are full details on the Roundtable website including a blog to keep you up to date with developments as they unfold over the next six weeks. If you are able to attend, please register using the simple online registration form.

CLEA Annual Meeting Coming Up

There’s still time to register for the Canadian Law and Economics Association’s annual meeting next month in Toronto. It’s scheduled for September 28-29 at the University of Toronto Law School (left). This year's schedule is a little light on contracts offerings, but there are some interesting panels on behavioral economics, social norms, and teaching L&E.  Info is available here.

[Frank Snyder]

Conference: We Love Lucy

This year is the 90th annivarsary of Judge Cardozo's opinion in Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, and it will be marked this fall with a conference at Pace Law School in White Plains, New York.  Jim Fishman (Pace) is the organizer, and the proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Pace Law Review.

Click on the "continue reading" link for the tentative program, which should be interesting not only to contracts scholars but to fashionistas. , since it will feature a wealth of detail about the fashion designer known as "Lucile" and the world in which she lived.

[Frank Snyder]

THE ENDURING LEGACY OF
WOOD V. LADY DUFF GORDON

Pace University School of Law
November 8th and 9th 2007

Keynote Speaker
Joseph Perillo (Fordham), Editor, Corbin on Contracts
“Neutral Standardizing Of Contracts”

PANELS

Implication, Interpretation and Default Terms
Peter Linzer (Houston)
     “Implication and Its Discontents”
Nicholas Weiskopf (St. John’s)
     “Wood v. Lucy: The Overlap between Interpretation and
     Gap-Filling”
Yong-Sung (Jonathan Kang) (U. Washington),
      “Our Understanding of Implied Terms, Imperfectly Expressed”
Melvin Aron Eisenberg (Cal-Berkeley), Commentator

Wood v. Duff Gordon as a Teaching Vehicle
Deborah Zalesne (CUNY),
     “Integrating Academic Skills into First Year Curricula:  Using
     Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon to Teach Fact Identification and
     Fact Analysis”
Miriam Cherry (Pacific)
     “Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon: (Social) Class in the Classroom”
Deborah Post (Touro)
     “Teaching Contract as Commitment: Lucy Lady Duff Gordon
     and Promises ‘Instinct with Obligation’”
Celia Taylor, (Denver)
     “Teaching Ethics in Context: Using Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff
     Gordon in the First Year Curriculum.”

Lucile as a Fashion Designer and Feminist
Rebecca Matheson (Costume Inst., Metropolitan Museum of Art)
     “'Creator of Fashions’: Lady Duff-Gordon in Her Own Words”
Molly Sorkin (Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology)
     “After the Verdict: Lady Duff-Gordon and the Fate of Lucile, Ltd.”
Lewis Orchard (Fashion Designer & Lucile, Ltd. Collector)
     “Lady Duff-Gordon: An Edwardian Designer in a Modern Context”
Lourdes Font (Fashion Institute of Technology),
     “Teaching Lucile: Rethinking the Canon of Fashion History”

The Case in Context
Andrew Tettenborn (Exeter)
     “What It’s Worth to Do Your Best”
Larry DiMatteo (Florida)
     “Cardozo as a Talisman for a New Age of Contract Interpretation"
Meredith Miller (Touro)
     “A picture of the New York Court of Appeals at the Time of
     Wood v. Lucy Lady Duff-Gordon”
Megan Richardson (Melbourne)
      “Wood v. Lucy Duff-Gordon and the Cult of Personality”
Monroe Friedman (Hofstra)
     “Lucy’s Case and Positive Unconscionability”
Victor Goldberg (Columbia), Commentator
Walter F. Pratt (South Carolina), Commentator

Implication and Best Efforts in the Employment Context
Robert Bird (Connecticut)
     “An Employment Contract ‘Instinct with an Obligation’:
     Costs and Contexts”
Rachel Arnow-Richman (Denver)
     “Good Faith, Reasonable Notice and Indefinite Contracts:
     Re-Imagining Employment as a Bilateral Relationship”
Emily Gold Waldman (Pace)
     “Fulfilling Lucy’s Legacy: Recognizing Good-Faith Obligations
     Within Explicit Job Duties”
Kenneth Dau-Schmidt (Indiana), Commentator

There will be a virtual tour of the exhibit “Designing the It Girl: Lucile and her Style” organized by the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, March 1-April 4, 2005