Could Breach of Contract Be Immoral?

Prof. Seana Shiffrin of UCLA Law School tackles the issue of “contract law’s strong traditional bar on punitive damages for intentional, gratuitous breach of contract.” She jumps right into the fray:  “Morality, I claimed, correctly regards some breaches of promise as morally wrong and as warranting not only compensation but the administration of morality’s punitive …

Individual Freedom and Fault in Contract Law

Prof. Stefan Grundmann argues that strict liability is essential to contract law because it enforces an important societal norm – freedom of choice. According to Prof. Grundmann, “The majority of civil law scholars endorse the idea that the fault principle is ethically well-founded, and some scholars clearly see it as ethically superior to strict liability.  …

Fault at the Contract-Tort Interface

Prof. Roy Kreitner of Tel Aviv University shows great insight into the dichotomy between tort and contract law.  He first discusses how tort law shifted toward a fault-based system during the nineteenth century. States Prof Kreitner, “the early [tort] law asked simply, ‘Did the defendant do the physical act which damaged the plaintiff?’  T[ort] law …

Economic Constraints in the Fiduciary Relationship

Professors Robert Cooter and Bradley J. Freedman analyzed the economic character and legal consequences of the fiduciary relationship.  As discussed below, their strongest point is to explain that not all fiduciary duties are the same – it depends on the nature of the relationship. As a starting point, they acknowledge that “Legal theorists and practitioners …