Interpretation or construction is central to the operation of contract law. Despite the fundamental role it plays, there have been limited attempts to explain construction in holistic terms. This important book aims to fill that gap by offering a systematic exposition of the iterative process. It also goes further, suggesting practical solutions to disputes regarding questions of interpretation. The book argues that construction is not simply about establishing what words mean; it is a process through which objective intention is inferred from the choice of words in a contract. The interpretive process involves four steps: formulate the question of interpretation in dispute; explore competing answers to the question; analyse the admissible material supporting each interpretation; and weigh and balance the competing considerations. By so doing, the book offers a simple yet sophisticated framework for interpreting/constructing contracts.

Contracts for the Sale of Goods delivers detailed analysis and in-depth comparison of the substantive law for the sale of goods in domestic and international transactions. It provides comparative analysis of three major sources of sales law: The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the Sale of Goods, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC), and the Sales of the Uniform Commercial Code. Practitioners, academics, and anyone involved in the sale or purchase of goods in the international market will need this thorough analysis of both the text of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the cases that have addressed and interpreted the CISG. The new edition examines the number of American cases on the CISG decided since the last edition, and the several hundred major non-American CISG cases, concentrating on the development of specific points of law that have become important and contentious areas. It continues to provide a complete discussion of the PICC including the latest provisions on set-off, assignment, and limitation periods, and timely coverage of the new supplementary model clauses for use with the Principles. This is the only text that compares and analyses the PICC, the CISG and the Uniform Commercial Code in a detailed way. It explores instances when one may be more applicable than the other, and enables further understanding of all three instruments and the options available under international and domestic US law.

This book examines the interconnections between artificial intelligence, data governance and private law rules with a comparative focus on selected jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region. The chapters discuss the myriad challenges of translating and adapting theory, doctrines and concepts to practice in the Asia-Pacific region given their differing circumstances, challenges and national interests. The contributors are legal experts from the UK, Israel, Korea, and Singapore with extensive academic and practical experience. The essays in this collection cover a wide range of topics, including data protection and governance, data trusts, information fiduciaries, medical AI, the regulation of autonomous vehicles, the use of blockchain technology in land administration, the regulation of digital assets and contract formation issues arising from AI applications. The book will be of interest to members of the judiciary, policy makers and academics who specialise in AI, data governance and/or private law or who work at the intersection of these three areas, as well as legal technologists and practising lawyers in the Asia-Pacific, the UK and the US.

The practical importance of intangible personalty such as debt, bonds, equities, futures, derivatives and other financial instruments has never been greater than it is today. The same may be said of interests in intellectual property. Yet the assignment of these intangible assets from one to another remains difficult to understand. Assignments are often taken to operate as a form of transfer akin to conveyances of legal titles to tangible personalty. However, this conception does not accurately reflect the law of assignment as it has developed in the caselaw in England and Wales. This book sets out a different model of the workings of assignments as a matter of English law, one that provides an analytical, yet historically sensitive, framework which allows us to better understand how, and why, assignments work in the way the cases tell us they do.

Digital transformation is reshaping the business arena as new, successful digital business models are increasing agility and presenting better ways to handle business than the traditional alternatives. Industry 4.0 affects everything in our daily lives and is blurring the line between the physical, the biological, and the digital. This created an environment where technology and humans are so closely integrated that it is impacting every activity within the organizations. Specifically, contracting processes and procedures are challenged to align with the new business dynamics as traditional contracts are no longer fitting today's agile and continuously changing environments. Businesses are required to facilitate faster, more secure, soft, and real-time transactions while protecting stakeholders' rights and obligations. This includes agile contracts which are dynamically handling scope changes, smart contracts that can automate rule-based functions, friction-less contracts that can facilitate different activities, and opportunity contracts that looks toward the future. Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 analyzes the consequences, benefits, and possible scenarios of contract transformation under the pressure of new technologies and business dynamics in modern times. The chapters cover the problems, issues, complications, strategies, governance, and risks related to the development and enforcement of digital transformation contracting practices. While highlighting topics in the area of digital transformation and contracting such as artificial intelligence, digital business, emerging technologies, and blockchain, this book is ideally intended for business, engineering, and technology practitioners and policy makers, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in understanding the scope, complexity, and importance of innovative contracts and agile contracting.

This collection of essays investigates the way in which modern private law apportions responsibility between multiple parties who are (or may be) responsible for the same legal event. It examines both doctrines and principles that share responsibility between plaintiffs and defendants, on the one hand, and between multiple defendants, on the other. The doctrines examined include those 'originating' doctrines which operate to create shared liabilities in the first place (such as vicarious and accessorial liability); and, more centrally, those doctrines that operate to distribute the liabilities and responsibilities so created. These include the doctrine of contributory (comparative) negligence, joint and several (solidary) liability, contribution, reimbursement, and 'proportionate' liability, as well as defences and principles of equitable 'allowance' that permit both losses and gains to be shared between parties to civil proceedings. The work also considers the principles which apportion liability between multiple defendants and insurers in cases in which the cause, or timing, of a particular loss is hard to determine. The contributions to this volume offer important perspectives on the law in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as a number of civilian jurisdictions. They explicate the main rules and trends and offer critical insights on the growth and distribution of shared responsibilities from a number of different perspectives - historical, comparative, empirical, doctrinal and philosophical.

This is a topical area for the courts, which have moved to imply various limitations or tests on decision makers powers and when they can be challenged. This is made more difficult for lay users and lawyers alike in that implied restrictions are (by definition) not apparent from the words of the relevant contract itself. These limits are applied by the courts not just to fiduciaries (such as trustees or directors), but also to non-fiduciaries (eg banks and employers). Recent case law includes: * Pitt v Holt (SC) - trustee decisions (2013) * Braganza (SC) - contractual discretions (2015) * Eclairs (SC) - directors powers: proper purposes (2015) * IBM UK Holdings v Dalgleish (CA) - employer powers under pension plans (2017) * British Airways (CA)- pension plan - proper purposes (2018) The book reviews the relevant doctrines of: * Interpretation rules * Proper purposes; * Due consideration of relevant factors * Full perversity (no reasonable decision maker)