This Essay introduces general equilibrium theory (GET) and mechanism design theory (MD) in a general sense (rather than in piece meal applications) to the study of contract law. As a positive matter, this introduction reveals three understudied areas: (i) when the equilibrium contract is...

Contract theorists approach value pluralism in three ways: (a) Capitulation: the theorist shows how a single value – e.g., efficiency or community – explains a rule or an area and implies normative recommendations; (b) Leveraging: the theorist shows how multiple values that theorists find...

The common law developed over centuries a small set of default rules that courts have used to fill gaps in otherwise incomplete contracts between commercial parties. These rules can be applied almost independently of context: the market damages rule, for example, requires a court only to know...

Contract interpretation is an important subject for lawyers but there are few rigorous economic analyses. We use a formal model to derive the interpretive rule that an “ideal” legal enforcer would adopt. Commercial parties make contracts to maximize gains from trade. Our enforcer is ideal,...

Private law theory must confront the plurality of values that inform the problems that private law addresses in practice. We consider Hanoch Dagan's and Michael Heller's The Choice Theory of Contracts as a case-study in the promise and perils that embracing plural values poses for private law...