Reinventing Contract
AbstractThis article claims standardized contracts are essentially commodities and not agreements. The argument is based on historical and empirical data as well as relevant scholarly literature and case law. Markets do not best answer the problems resulting from contracts authored by the firm. Rather, viewing contracts as commodities is a paradigm shift opening the door to looking at them through a new lens. The article proposes a legislative solution: direct control of problem terms, focusing on the consequences of legal rules. The article is neither for nor against standardized terms. It is for understanding their utility, achieving independence from moral analysis and creating symmetry between the marketplace and legal dogma. |