ContractsProf Blog

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

Contracts Section Call for Papers - AALS Annual Meeting 2008

Call for Papers

AALS Section on Contracts

Panel on

“How Bad Are Mandatory Arbitration Terms?”

Papers will be published in the Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2008).

The Section on Contracts of the Association of American Law Schools is seeking two presenters for its annual meeting program on the topic, “How Bad are Mandatory Arbitration Terms?”  The conference will be held on January 2-6, 2007, in New York City (the precise date and time of the panel is not yet determined.)

One of the most hotly contested issues in contract law these days is the unconscionability of mandatory arbitration terms in employment and consumer contracts. Some aspects of this phenomenon are well understood: how widespread these terms are, and what are the doctrinal aspects of the unconscionability test. But a basic issue in this debate is not yet well-informed: how bad is mandatory arbitration in reality? How much worse, if at all, are breached-against parties when they have to arbitrate? When does mandatory arbitration bar recovery and prevent vindication of legitimate claims? Are there unintended implications to the use, or the elimination of, mandatory arbitration terms?

The presentations in the panel are intended to move beyond myth, conjecture, and assumption, and to shed a more concrete and empirical light on these questions. Speakers will present and debate insights and findings regarding the reality of mandatory contract arbitration.

Four presentations will be made: two by invited speakers and two by scholars selected through this call for papers.  The Michigan Journal of Law Reform has agreed to publish their papers and is potentially interested in publishing several additional papers in the same 2008 issue on this topic. The two invited speakers are Theodore St. Antoine, the Degan Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Michigan and former President of the National Academy of Arbitrators, and Theodore Eisenberg, the Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law at Cornell.

A selection committee, in consultation with the editors of the Michigan Journal of Law Reform, will choose the two additional papers for presentation.  The committee members are Omri Ben-Shahar (Michigan), Lisa Bernstein (Chicago), and Martha Ertman (Utah), members of the section’s Executive Committee. The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2007, but the committee encourages earlier submissions and will read papers as they are submitted.  Please send an abstract and a draft paper as electronic attachments to Omri Ben-Shahar, omri@umich.edu. Selections will be made before Sept. 1, 2007, in time for inclusion of the names of those selected in the AALS annual meeting program.  Panelists will be expected to circulate manuscripts among the panel, and submit an initial draft to the law journal, by December 1.  The deadline for revised manuscripts for publication will be in February 2008, with publication in the summer 2008 issue. The length of pieces should be no more than 30 printed pages (40 double-spaced manuscript pages).

Note: The AALS will not provide funds for speakers’ travel expenses or meeting registration; annual meeting speakers typically obtain funding from their home institutions. 

Thanks!

Thanks are due to Frank Snyder, Val Ricks, Texas Wesleyan and South Texas College of Law for being great hosts for this year's annual International Contracts Conference. Thanks!

[Meredith R. Miller]

Launch Control, this is Houston. We are go for launch!

Well, as last year, the weather for the annual International Contracts Conference threatens to be rainy. Nevertheless, it looks like a promising line up today here in Houston:

Panel One: Transactional Economics: Victor Goldberg’s Framing Contract Law Moderator: Franklin G. Snyder Commentators: Mark A. Gergen Stewart Macaulay Keith A. Rowley Respondent: Victor P. Goldberg

Panel Two: Theoretical Perspectives
Moderator: Keith A. Rowley
Aditi Bagchi, Imperfect Rights in Private Law
Daniel Markovits, Some Core Challenges for Contract Theory
Michael Pratt, Promises in Law and Morality
Hanoch Sheinman, Contracts and Promises

Panel Three: Issues in Contract Remedies
Moderator: Deborah Zalesne
Miriam A. Cherry, The Strange Tale of Trover the Dog
Chaim Saiman, Restitution in America
Stephen A. Smith, Substituionary Damages

Panel Four: Transactions and Costs
Moderator: Peter Linzer
Christian A. Johnson, Contractual Innovations Developed by the OTC Derivatives Industry: Amending Contracts to Deal with Systemic Industry Changes
Margaret L. Moses, Lowering Transaction Costs in Commercial Letters of Credit
Val D. Ricks, Syndicate Short Covering -- A Transaction Cost?
Peter L. Fitzgerald, International Contracting Practices Survey Project

[Meredith R. Miller]

Deadline Approaches for International Conference on Contracts

The deadline for submitting abstract proposals for the Third International Conference on Contracts is coming up January 26.  The two-day conference, hosted by South Texas College of Law in balmy Houston, Texas, will take place February 23-24, 2007.  (Left: The award-winning Fred Parks Library at STCL.)

The conference is unique, in that it bring together senior and junior scholars who are working in any aspect of contract law and practice.  Papers that examine contracts from any perspective are welcome.  Proposals from junior scholars, those who work in non-law-school environments, and those whose work focuses on non-U.S. legal systems are especially encouraged.  The Conference web site, which includes the Call for Papers and registration and hotel information, is:

http://contractsconference.com/

The $129 conference fee includes a Continental breakfast and lunch on both Friday and Saturday, as well as the conference dinner on Friday night at a local landmark famous for its Southern cuisine, Treebeard's on Market Square.

This year's conference is co-sponsored by South Texas College of Law and Texas Wesleyan Law School, along with Lexis/Nexis Publishing and International Law Conferences LLC.

Previous conferences were held in Gloucester, England, in 2004, and Fort Worth, Texas, in 2006.

[Frank Snyder]

AALS Section on Contracts Panel: New Frontiers in Private Ordering

Just a reminder for those of you about to set off for the AALS annual meeting:

The AALS Section on Contracts is hosting a panel entitled "New Frontiers in Private Ordering."  The full program blurb can be found here (scroll down to the 1:30-3:15 slot).  For those who miss the excitement in DC, the proceedings will be published in the Arizona Law Review.  The panel will feature:

Jean Braucher, University of Arizona College of Law (moderator)
Ian Ayres, Yale Law School
Jennifer Gerarda Brown, Qunnipiac University School of Law
Michele Goodwin, DePaul University College of Law
Martha M. Ertwin, University of Utah College of Law

In addition, the panel will address scholarly submissions by Rachel S. Arnow-Richman and Daniela Caruso selected from the Call for Papers.

[Jeremy Telman]

Call for Papers: Business Law in Copenhagen

A thousand years ago, when King Sweyn I Forkbeard (left) and his son Canute the Great founded a little fishing village on a fine harbor in Jutland, they might have thought that one day it would become one of Europe's great cities.  But they probably had absolutely no idea that the place, later known as Copenhagen would one day host the International Conference on Business, Law, and Technology, which is scheduled this December 5-7, 2006.

Papers are still being accepted for the conference; the submission deadline is October 20.  The organizers have a long list of topics they're interested in, which include Sales of Goods, Electronic Signatures, Contract Law, Consumer Protection, and E-business.  Selected papers will be published in a book, Business Law: Present and Emerging Trends.

[Frank Snyder]

Teaching Consumer Law

Interested in teaching consumer law?  Or at least raising more consumer law issues in your standard commercial courses?  If so, you'll want to think about attending the University of Houston Law Center conference, Teaching Consumer Law: The Past, Present, and Future of Consumer Law, which is slated for Friday and Saturday, May 19-20, 2006.  The presenters included a blend of academics and practicing attorneys, and should provide a lot of useful information.  Special added attraction at slight additional cost:  Texas Rangers v. Houston Astros at Enron Field Minute Maid Park.

[Frank Snyder]

AALS K CFP

Those interested in the role of contract law in private ordering -- whether for or against -- should consider submitting proposals for the Annual Program of the AALS Section on Contracts.  This year's topic, says Chair Jean Braucher (Arizona) is New Frontiers in Private Ordering.  Papers selected will be published in the Arizona Law Review.  Here's the Call for Papers:

The Section on Contracts of the Association of American Law Schools is seeking two presenters for its annual meeting program on the topic, New Frontiers in Private Ordering.  The program, to be held on January 5, 2007, in San Francisco, will explore ways in which contracts, real or metaphorical, are being used to deal with problems that public law might tackle but is not addressing very effectively.  A "new frontier" in private ordering can involve, among other possibilities, an unusual purpose of contracting or an unusual subject matter of the contract.  Both celebratory and critical perspectives are welcome.  Papers could do one or more of the following:  describe an interesting example, develop a theoretical perspective, and consider strengths and weaknesses of using private rather than public ordering to address a social problem.

Two presentations will be made by invited speakers, and two presentations will be by scholars selected through this call for papers.  The Arizona Law Review has agreed to publish these four papers and is interested in publishing several additional papers in the issue on this topic.  The AALS annual meeting program will only allow time for four presentations but additional papers to be published will be announced at the program and abstracts will be made available.

  One of the two invited papers is a co-authored spin-off from a book by Professors Ian Ayres (Yale) and Jennifer Brown (Quinnipiac, right), Straightforward:  How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights (Princeton University Press 2005), which suggests ways for people to "contract" around homophobia by, for example, buying products with the "fair employment mark" indicating that the seller does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.  The new paper will discuss how an employer who adopts the mark can restrict, better quantify, and better control litigation risk than under existing nondiscrimination policies. The other invited paper is by Professor Michele Goodwin (DePaul) and is a spin-off from her book Black Markets:  The Supply and Demand of Body Parts (Cambridge University Press 2006), which is on trade in human organs and raises race and class issues concerning this trade.  Her new paper will focus on the promise of negotiated sales of body parts as a means to better serve the interests of both sellers and buyers.  Drawing on the example of negotiation in the reproductive realm, the paper will develop the argument that selective private ordering in intimate spaces can better serve the poor and racial minorities than public ordering.

A selection committee, in consultation with the editors of the Arizona Law Review, will choose two additional papers for presentation.  The committee members are Professor Jean Braucher (Arizona), chair of the Section on Contracts, and Professors Martha Ertman (Utah) and Robert Hillman (Cornell), members of the section Executive Committee.  The deadline for submissions is Sept. 1, 2006, but the committee encourages earlier submissions and will read papers as they are submitted.  Please send an abstract and a draft paper as electronic attachments to Jean Braucher.  Questions also can be directed to that address.  Selections will be made before Oct. 1, 2006, in time for inclusion of the names of those selected in the AALS annual meeting program.  Panelists will be expected to circulate near-final draft papers among themselves by December 15.  The deadline for manuscripts will be March 15, 2007, with publication in the fall 2007 issue of the Arizona Law Review.  The length of pieces should be no more than 30 printed ages (40 to 45 double-spaced manuscript pages). Papers can be co-authored; if selected, co-authors will have to allot their program time among themselves.  AALS will not provide funds for speakers' travel expenses or meeting registration; annual meeting speakers typically obtain funding from their home institutions.

[Frank Snyder]

Designer Babies

Is a "designer baby" -- a child whose genes have been deliberately modified to meet parents' specifications -- a good or a service for purposes of Article 2?  That's an interesting question -- the child might be "specially manufactured goods" under 2-105(1) -- but we expect it won't be one of those addressed at Designer Babies, a symposium scheduled for March 30 at the University of Pittsburgh.  Panelists appear to be focusing on less compelling topics, like the medical, ethical, and moral issues involved in the business.  Still, it sounds interesting.

[Frank Snyder]

Religiously Affiliated Schools Meet at Baylor

Faculty from some 30 schools will be gathering in Waco next week for the Sixth Annual Conference of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools.  The theme is Justice Through the Lens of Faith , and it will be hosted by Baylor Law School.  Information on the event is here.

[Frank Snyder]

Conference on Teaching: Bring Sweaters

Our beloved Mother Ship, the Association of American Law Schools, has reverted to form.  After stunning everyone with a conference in Montreal last July -- July is the right time to be in Montreal -- the conference organizers have reverted to form, scheduling an interesting conference in a very nice place but at the wrong time.

The conference itself looks like a great one.  It's called New Ideas for Law School Teachers: Teaching Intentionally.  And it's designed not for newcomers but for experienced teachers who have found their teaching sliding more and more into habit.  You can get a rundown of the impressive list of speakers at the link above.  The event is scheduled for June 10-14 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Vancouver is, of course, a very nice place, but the average high temperature in June is 66°F, and it tends to be awfully cloudy, though according to the Canadian weather site you can expect at least two days without rain during the four-day conference.

Deadline for early registration is May 8

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks!

It was widely agreed that the inaugural International Contracts Conference was a huge success. In two jam-packed days, there was not one dull moment, and it was a wonderful exchange of a diverse array of ideas. Perhaps next year someone will live blawg the conference, which will be held at Pace Law in White Plains, New York.

One last "thank you" to Frank Snyder and Texas Wesleyan for organizing and hosting the event.

[Meredith R. Miller]

CUNY Hosts Non-Profit Conference

Nonprofit, the saying goes, is a tax status, not a business plan.  Large amounts of money are controlled by nonprofit organizations -- and who's getting those benefits?  That seems to be the intriguing question addressed by an upcoming CUNY Law Review is hosting, Who Profits from Nonprofits?

The program is slated for Friday, March 3, at CUNY’s law school.  Admission is free.

[Frank Snyder]

Contracts and Philosophy at UVA

The Virginia Law Review is hosting a symposium this weekend with a contracts flavor.  It’s called Contemporary Political Theory and Private Law and it’s scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17-18, 2006, at Slaughter Hall on the UVA campus.  Among the speakers are Jody Kraus, Kevin Kordana, and Steven Walt (all of Virginia), Daniel Markovits (Yale), and Barbara Fried (Stanford).

[Frank Snyder]

Selling Sex

Okay, the folks at Yale know a good topic for a conference when they see one.  The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism will host a conference, Sex for Sale.  There are two panels in the one-day session, scheduled for Saturday, February 4, one on pornography and one on prostitution.  The issue of whether interactive sex software is a good or a service under the UCC doesn’t seem to be covered.

To register for the conference, e-mail Erin Bradrick at Yale, with "Sex for Sale Registration" in the subject line.  You'll either get signed up for the conference or find yourself on an FBI list.

[Frank Snyder]

Theory and Anti-Theory at Contracts Conference

February 10 is the last day to get the early registration discount for the International Contracts Conference, being held in Fort Worth, February 24-25.  Information on the conference, including registration and lodging, is at the Conference web site.

The conference's opening panel, Theory and Anti-Theory in Contract Law,  will feature a paper from Peter Linzer (Houston), with reactions and commentary from Randy Barnett (Boston U), David Campbell (Durham), Hila Keren (Hebrew-Jerusalem), and Joe Perillo (Fordham).  Ohio State's Larry Garvin (left) will be the moderator.

[Frank Snyder]

Contracts Conference Slated

More than 40 panelists and presenters will gather in Fort Worth (left) in February for the inaugural International Contracts Conference.  The two-day session, which will be held in Texas Wesleyan's new Amon Carter Auditorium, features a mix of senior and junior scholars and panels on a wide range of subjects, both doctrinal and theoretical.

The conference is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 24-25, 2006.  Registration is $99.  The conference program and information on registration and lodging are available at the Conference web site.  We expect that CLE credit will be available for those who need it.

[Frank Snyder]

AALS Blogging Panel

The AALS unfortunately scheduled a panel on blogging at the same time as the excellent Section on Commercial Law meeting on Friday.  If you're interested in what went on at the blogging panel (which featured Randy Barnett, Lawrence Solum, and Victor Fleischer), our colleague Paul Caron has this summary over on TaxProf Blog.

[Frank Snyder]

Bean Feed?

In a previous post, we described the Annual Conclave of the AALS, our parent body, as a "Bean Feed."  Turns out some of you don't know what a bean feed is.  It's a term used in Missouri and other parts of the Plains States to describe a kind of public event that combines good food and great companionship at a very reasonable price.  Left, a typical bean feed.  Right, a fund-raising bean feed.

[Frank Snyder]

Today at the AALS: Friday

Today is the big day for contracts types at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.  Highlights:

10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.   The big gathering, of course, is the annual session of the Section on Contracts.  This year's program is Empirical Research in Contract Law.  Section Chair David Snyder of Tulane (left) will moderate the panel, which will also feature Stephen Choi (Cal-Berkeley), George Geis (Alabama), Mitu Gulati (Georgetown), Stewart Macaulay (Wisconsin), and Debora Threedy (Utah).  The Section's annual business meeting will follow the program.

1:30-3:15 p.m.  The Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law will have one of the most interesting panels in recent memory, as they bring out Commercial Calamities, a panel dedicated to the "errors, omissions, archaisms, peculiarities, and downright stupidities" of commercial law.  Each panelist will offer his or her own nominee for worst aspect of commercial law.  Larry Garvin (Ohio State) will moderate.  Panelists include Amy Boss (Temple), Victor Goldberg (Columbia), Bob Hillman (Cornell), Bob Scott (Virginia), and J.J. White (Michigan).

4:00-6:00 p.m.  All Contracts Section members and friends can join us at Harry's Bar in the Lobby of the Marriott Wardman Park for a drink.  No, the Section won't be buying, since half our annual budget is being used this morning to rent the video projector for our morning one-hour-and-45-minute session -- and we've got to save some money for the rest of the year.  But I'll buy you a drink if you tell me how much you love the blog.

6:30-8:30 p.m.  Get ready to pole that pirogue down the bayou!  The law schools at American, Tulane, and Loyola-New Orleans are hosting A Night in Celebration of New Orleans in Support of Our Colleagues, at the AU campus (right).

[Frank Snyder]

Today at the AALS: Thursday

Greetings from the AALS Annual Meeting at the Godawful Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C.  The annual bean feed of The Official Learned Society of Legal Education has been going since Tuesday, but only the hardiest can do the entire week.

The immortal Christopher Columbus Langdell taught that law was a science, and this year's gabfest continues Langdell's vision; the theme is Empirical Scholarship:  What Should We Study and How Should We Study It? 

Today's schedule of events includes several things of interest to commercial law types:

8:30-10:15 a.m. One of the areas where status relationships encroach onto contractual relations is that of fiduciary duties.  The Section on Agency, Partnership, LLCs and Unincorporated Associations is presenting What's Left of Fiduciary Duties?  Tulsa contracts prof Barbara Bucholtz will moderate the session.

10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.  Insurance contracts are, well, different.  The kinds of contractual protections you use to limit risks in ordinary commercial transactions may not work in situations where contracts of insurance cover risks that may be wholly unpredictable.  The Section on Insurance's program, Difficult Risks, takes a broad look at contractual, governmental, economic, and policy issues involved raised by things like terrorism and seismic hazards.

12:30-2:00 p.m.  On tap for the Luncheon Speaker is one of the founders of the Law & Economics movement, Judge Guido Calabresi.

2:15-4:00 p.m.  The AALS Plenary Session will be a three-part concurrent exploration of Empirical Research.  One track is for those who want to know how it should be evaluated and credited in law schools; one is for those who want to do it; and one is for those who don't want to do it but want to hear some especially good examples of it.  Only one to a customer, though.

4:00-5:45 p.m.  It's not really contracts-related, but those who are good soldiers in your school's CLE programs may be interested in Writing for Credit-Converting CLE Materials into Published Works and Vice Versa, a session sponsored jointly by the Section on CLE and the Section for New Law Professors.  ContractsProf Contributing Editor Miriam Cherry will moderate the discussion.

6:30-8:30 p.m.  Reception for all conference attendees at the Georgetown Law Center.  Free drinks!

[Frank Snyder]

AALS: What I Really Hate About Commercial Law

The AALS Contracts Section's program is, as we've mentioned before, scheduled for Saturday, January 7, 2006.  But there's a great warm-up planned for Friday, when our sister Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law presents Commercial Calamities.  An A-list of commercial law scholars -- most of them also active Contracts Section members -- will present the Dark Side of Commercial Law.

Three papers are particularly interesting to Contracts folks.  Victor Goldberg (Columbia) will tee off on Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon. and its unfortunate effect on UCC 2-306.  Bob Hillman (Cornell) will take a 9-iron and work over UCC 2-209 (the one on modification, rescission, and waiver), an "example of both substantive chaos and drafting disaster."  Bob Scott (Virginia) will take on that casebook staple, Hoffman v. Red Owl.  Also on tap are Amy Boss (Temple) and Jim White (Michigan).  Larry Garvin (Ohio State) will moderate.  Here's the official description.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the brilliance of its framers and the interests of its users, commercial law has at least its share of errors, omissions, archaisms, peculiarities, and downright stupidities. Our session is devoted to airing our favorite annoyances about commercial law, ranging from problems with specific provisions to problems with structure and form. Our aim here is not to be particularly constructive but rather to be interestingly critical, though in the course of criticism doubtless some hints toward improvement will emerge.

Today’s panelists are drawn from a larger group whose accumulated grievances will be collected in a symposium to be published in the Ohio State Law Journal. Each participant will present a pet peeve, with plenty of time for Section members to add their own (or, at whatever peril, to defend a cherished doctrine or structure against the attacks of others).

The session is scheduled for 1:30 to 3:15.  The Section business meeting will take place at the conclusion.

[Frank Snyder]

Contracts Subject of Transactional Panel

There are some things of interest to Contracts profs (besides our own annual session) at the AALS Annual Meeting, slated for January 3-7, 2006, at the Marriott Wardman Park in D.C.  On Wednesday, January 4, there's a program on transational law.  Breakout panels include two sessions on Contracts -- Aribtation, Comparative Concepts (Remedies).  Speakers will include Janet Levit (Tulsa), Hannah L. Buxbaum (Indiana-Bloomington). William S. Dodge (Cal-Hastings), Ruth E. Gordon (Villanova), Andrea K. Bjorklund (Cal-Davis), David V. Snyder (Tulane), and Kellye Y. Testy (Seattle).

[Frank Snyder]

AALS Section Program Set

"Empirical Scholarship in Contract Law" will be the topic of the Section's panel at the AALS Annual Meeting in January.  Section Chair David Snyder will lead the discussion, which will explore different approaches to empirical scholarship in contract law.  The panel is slated for Friday, January 6, 2006, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., at the Godawful Marriott Wardman Park.

Steven Choi (Cal-Berkeley) and Mitu Gulati (Georgetown) will present results from their studies on boilerplate terms, particularly geared to the factors leading to innovation and change.  George Geis (Alabama, left) will present an empirical study, based on marketing data, on the optimal precision of default rules.  Stewart Macaulay (Wisconsin) will address the empirical side of policy issues, especially contract interpretation, and will put empirical work in the context of a new legal realism related to the law in action movement.  Debora Threedy (Utah, right), one of the leading practitioners of qualitative empiricism in law -- through deep historical studies of important cases such as Alaska Packers -- will examine how the practice of legal archaeology illuminates contract law.  The published symposium, which will appear in the Tulane Law Review, will also include an empirical study from Kate Litvak (Texas), discussing recent trends in venture capital contracts.

The format will allow time for questions and answers, including questions about what constitutes “empirical” work in the law and what role empirical study can play in contract scholarship.  The annual Business Meeting will take place at the end of the panel.

[Frank Snyder]