This chapter examines the often-cited distinction between private international law and public international law in the context of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’). The traditional view holds that private and public international law are separate...

Blockchain technology can autonomously perform transactions across various industries and sectors without human involvement, revolutionizing how people do business. These transactions are performed through smart contracts, which consist of coded commands on the blockchain. This paper looks at...

Arbitration clauses in international contracts have become increasingly popular in recent years. They offer parties to a contract a flexible and efficient alternative to traditional court litigation, particularly in cross-border transactions. However, the enforceability and effectiveness of...

This article analyses the civil and registry implementation of smart property in real estate in Spain from a European perspective. To this end, a general theory is developed for smart property in real estate and transactional smart contracts, paying particular attention to remedies and property...

No–poaching clauses (NPCs) have recently come under scrutiny due to their potentially anti–competitive impact on wages. However they can also enhance efficiency. We use data from the US chain restaurant industry to assess the effect of such clauses on wages and we find robust evidence of a...

Contract law affects behavior not just directly, by ordering damages, but also indirectly, by providing information on how the parties to the dispute behaved. Information from litigation can then help third parties decide whether to do business with the disputants going forward. Contract law...

The separability of an arbitration agreement from the underlying contract is a well-established theory in commercial arbitration. This theory has been applied by courts and arbitral tribunal across the globe without any deviance. However, the position becomes complex when the question is...

Why do lawyers in some jurisdictions continue to ‘automatically’ exclude the 1980 UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in their choices of law for international sales contracts? Why do lawyers in other jurisdictions approach the decision very differently? Why...

This paper focuses on one particular form of intermediary which has emerged as a core component of the digital economy: platforms. Platforms are the beating heart of the digital world, bringing together those who provide and those who acquire: on social media, people share their lives with their...

Any legal system recognizing property rights or entitlements vested in a particular party or owner must also specify the degree to which the law will protect the owner’s interests. Often, the owner’s interests are protected by “property rules,” which, through various civil, equitable and...

According to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI) Intellectual Property Rights Information Statement and Licensing Declaration, patent owners declare that they are “prepared to grant irrevocable licenses…”. In this article, we explore different possible...

This essay examines whether the smart contract innovation is capable of displacing the orthodox adherence to traditional contracts. This examination is underpinned by an analysis of the legality of smart contracts in which it is exemplified that smart contracts ought to be considered legally...

The paper examines the architecture of contracting and the instruments to control the exercise and the abuse of private regulatory power along supply chains. The design of the contractual architecture and its implementation may cause significant unfairness in power distribution that can...

This chapter explores the extent to which Australian contract law has - or has not - reflected international contract law in its development. The author explores the areas in which Australian courts and legislators might benefit from drawing upon the CISG and the UNIDROIT Principles of...

The contribution aims to address the issues implied by the following questions: (a) What is the contract law to be codified? (b) What is the possible impact of a European contract law codification upon the other private law fields? (c) Which are the driving forces behind and ahead of the...

Contract law has one overarching goal: to advance the legitimate interests of the contracting parties. For the most part, scholars, judges, and parties embrace this party primacy norm, recognizing only a few exceptions, such as mandatory rules that bar enforcement of agreements that harm others....

A smart contract is software designed to do the job of a legal contract: ensuring the performance of parties who might not otherwise trust one another to do so. By running a smart contract on blockchain, users can lock themselves into future performances without relying on a third-party enforcer...

This article develops the point that the problems associated with contractual holdup may justify legal intervention in theory, and the article relates this conclusion to legal intervention in practice. Contractual holdup is considered for both fresh contracts and for modifications of contracts....

As China reformed its economy during the past 44 years, it experienced the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history, with an annual rate of GDP growth averaging nearly 10% from 1978 to 2018. In the past decade, however, the rate of growth has noticeably slowed, falling to just...

This note explores the interactions between new technologies with key areas of commercial law and potential legal changes to respond to new developments in technology and businesses. Inspired by the Bali Fintech Agenda, this note argues that country authorities need to closely examine the...

Firm integration is fundamentally shaped by contractual frictions. But do better contracting institutions, reducing these frictions, induce firms to be more or less deeply integrated? To address this question, this paper exploits unique micro data on ownership shares across more than 200,000...

This report and the model contract clauses that it contains are an effort to help companies provide legally effective and operationally likely human rights protections for workers in international supply chains. The report is the product of the Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in...

I discuss the concept of remedial consistency – consistency of remedial rights with primary rights – with respect to contract law, and what can be inferred about contract law, in the light of the requirement of remedial consistency, from the rules on compensation, specific performance,...

Contracts serve an important function: allocation of risks. In achieving this function, contractual parties routinely include a force majeure clause in their contracts to be excused from performance in the face of a supervening event. But what events qualify to excuse performance and how have...

Smart contracts are computer programs used to transfer digital assets according to user-generated specifications. Smart contracts run on decentralized blockchain networks. The fact that smart contracts, a new means for parties to digitally trade, greatly eliminate ex ante promissory obligations...

Contract law governs agreements between parties. This paper contains the chapters on contract law from a general, forthcoming book, Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law (Harvard University Press, 2003). Chapter 13 presents an overview of the subject. Chapter 14 is concerned with contract...

This article analyses and compares the rules applying to contractual penalties in Austria, Germany, France, Italy and England, as well es under the UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts, PICC and the Principles of European Contract Law, PECL. Also, the different approaches...

The commercial distribution contract, which might be local or international, is regarded one of the most updated methods in trading, selling, and marketing products, commodities, and services for consumers. As this type of contract urgently needs regulating, the study helps in illustrating the...

In his autobiographical account ‘My Life as a Lawyer’ Ole Lando wrote: ‘I set out to try and unify the substantive contract law in the EU. My efforts started in 1976’. These efforts were to lead to the publication of the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) in 1995 (Part I), 2002...

As part of the Australian Consumer Law reforms of 2010, unfair contract terms protections were implemented nationwide across most sectors that use standard form contracts in their dealings with consumers, including financial services. However, until recently, these protections did not apply to...

Conventional wisdom portrays contracts as static distillations of parties’ shared intent at some discrete point in time. In reality, however, contract terms evolve in response to their environments, including new laws, legal interpretations, and economic shocks. While several legal scholars...

The Biblical Natural Law of the Founding Fathers provides a better basis for contract law than the Law and Economic Theory. The Law and Economics Theory distorts the roles of judges and goes against the proper rooting of contract in the individual rights to own property and to enter contracts

Post-communist countries offer new evidence on the relative importance of courts and relationships in enforcing contracts. Belief in the effectiveness of courts has a significant positive effect on the level of trust shown in new relationships between firms and their customers. Well-functioning...

In Korea, local governments and local agencies had to apply a version of the first price auction augmented by an ex-post screening process when they procure construction contracts. However, this first price auction had been criticized because it was felt that too much price competition could...

National law is increasingly influenced by European developments in a process characterized by the term 'Europeanization'. This contribution illustrates the magnitude by which this process of Europeanization continues to shape national contract law in the Member States. In particular, the focus...

Force-majeure and Frustration are contract principles which are very significant in the present context of Covid-19 pandemic. This article is a study on the said contract principles with various judicial pronouncements on the applicability of force-majeure and frustration

This Article offers a theoretical framework for thinking about contract remedies. The argument starts from the distinction between rights and remedies in contract law. The distinction is consistent with the doctrinal structure of contract law in Western legal systems, and with the available...

Blockchain technology and its various applications have been gaining momentum rapidly in recent years. With the ability to disrupt whole industries and multi-national corporations, regulators have become aware of its potential as much as being wary of its inherent risks. This article seeks to...

Blockchain-based distributed ledgers (“Blockchain Ledgers”) provide an immutable, secure, and tamper evident alternative to conventional transactional modalities, one which also yields enhanced accountability, traceability, and transparency. The inherent benefits, and hence growing adoption...

Ten years after placing the idea of a European contract law on the political agenda, the European Commission has announced its intention to take legislative action soon. A proposal for a regulation on an optional instrument of European contract law is expected in the fall of 2011. The regulation...

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken by Victoria University of Wellington in association with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment over the period December 2018 to August 2019, to assess whether businesses that are offering goods or services to consumers in New...

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...

Automation is taking hold in different aspects of business across every industry and every sector. Consistent with this trend, the notion of embedding automation into legally binding contracts is also gaining momentum. COVID-19 is fuelling digital transformation and has highlighted frustrations...

Blockchain, smart contracts and copyright management disruption. The article examines the differences between new, blockchain and smart contract-based private ordering regime and the fundamental components of copyright law, such as exceptions and limitations, the doctrine of exhaustion,...

The rate at which athletes represent themselves in standard form contract negotiations has increased in recent years. Based on a wide variety of reasons for and against, athletes may elect to represent themselves rather than pay an agent to represent their interest(s). This article argues,...

The law of contracts, at least in its orthodox expression, concerns voluntary, or chosen, legal obligations. When Brody accepts Susan’s offer to sell him a canoe for a set price, the parties’ choices alter their legal rights and duties. Their success at changing the legal landscape depends...