Revisiting the Contracts Scholarship of Stewart Macaulay

On the Empirical and the Lyrical

Jean Braucher, John Kidwell, William C. Whitford

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781782250609
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Contract Law
• Index: Law

This book contains the papers prepared for a conference held at the Wisconsin Law School in 2011 to honour the work of Stewart Macaulay, one of the most famous contracts scholars of his generation. Macaulay has been writing about contracts and contract law for over 50 years; the 1960s were particularly productive years for him, when he introduced many novel ideas into the scholarly world. Macaulay's foundational work for what is now called relational contract theory was published during this period. Macaulay is also known for his use of empirical research and interdisciplinary theories to illuminate our knowledge of contracting practices. The papers in this volume reflect, in diverse ways, on the subsequent influence and the contemporary relevance of Macaulay's work. All the contributors are important contracts scholars in their own right: David Campbell and John Wightman from the UK, Brian Bix, Jay Feinman, Robert Gordon, Claire Hill, Charles Knapp, Ethan Leib, Deborah Post, Edward Rubin, Carol Sanger, Robert Scott, Gordon Smith, Josh Whitford (with Li-Wen Lin) and William Woodward from the USA. The volume also reproduces Macaulay's most cited paper, 'Non-Contractual Relations in Business', and excerpts from two other important papers of his, 'Private Legislation and the Duty to Read-Business Run by IBM Machine, the Law of Contracts and Credit Cards', and 'The Real and The Paper Deal: Empirical Pictures of Relationships, Complexity and the Urge for Transparent Simple Rules'.

Table of contents

• Prelims
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Bibliography of Publications by Stewart Macaulay
• Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study
• Private Legislation and the Duty to Read - Business Run by IBM Machine, the Law of Contracts and Credit Cards
• The Real and the Paper Deal: Empirical Pictures of Relationships, Complexity and the Urge for Transparent Simple Rules
• Part I. Relational Contracts and Theory
• 1. Is the World of Contracting Relations One of Spontaneous Order or Pervasive State Action? Stewart Macaulay Scrambles the Public-Private Distinction
• 2. Empiricism's Crucial Question and the Transformation of the Legal System
• 3. The Promise and the Peril of Relational Contract Theory
• 4. Ambition and Humility in Contract Law
• Part II. Contractual Relations Between Businesses: Law and Behaviour
• 5. What Do We Mean by the Non-Use of Contract?
• 6. Conflict and Collaboration in Business Organisation: A Preliminary Study
• 7. What Mistakes Do Lawyers Make in Complex Business Contracts, and What Can and Should be Done About Them? Some Preliminary Thoughts
• 8. The Role of Contract: Stewart Macaulay's Lessons from Practice
• Part III. Contractual Relations with Individuals: Law and Behaviour
• 9. What is the Relational Theory of Consumer Form Contract?
• 10. Acquiring Children Contractually: Relational Contracts at Work at Home
• 11. Is There a 'Duty to Read'?
• Part IV. Relational Critiques of Contract Doctrine
• 12. Restitution Without Context: An Examination of the Losing Contract Problem in the Restatement (Third) of Restitution
• 13. Contract in a Pre-Realist World: Professor Macaulay, Lord Hoffmann and the Rise of Context in the English Law of Contract
• 14. The Deregulatory Effects of Seventh Circuit Jurisprudence
• 15. Doctrines of Last Resort
• Index