No discussion of access to food is complete without examining famine - an extreme case of food scarcity that has haunted human civilizations throughout history. In addition to creating victims of hunger related deaths and plague, famine leaves an inerasable mark on human culture and community....

In contract law, standard interpretive doctrine instructs courts to give effect to the intentions of the parties. Efficiency is promoted, we are told, by reducing state intervention into autonomous private decision-making, particularly when contracting parties are sophisticated corporate...