This important volume presents a rich collection of ideas on and insights into the law and economics of contracts. It includes material relevant to a large number of legal fields. Many of the articles are classics that have, over the years, become focal points for continuing debate; others provide an easily accessible account of particular areas. The editor's comprehensive introduction provides an overview of law and economics scholarship in contracts over the past few decades and a portal into an evolving field. Topics include: the economics of contracting; efficient breach and renegotiation; expectation damages and its alternatives; default rules and mass markets.

This text applies the tools of game theory and information economics to advance the understanding of how laws work. Organized around the major solution concepts of game theory, the authors shows how such well-known games as the prisoner's dilemma, the battle of the sexes, beer-quiche and the Rubinstein bargaining game can illuminate many different kinds of legal problems. The organization of Game Theory and the Law serves to highlight the basic mechanisms at work and to lay out a natural progression in the sophistication of the game concepts and legal problems considered.

Every legal system must decide how to distinguish between agreements that are enforceable and those that are not. Formal bargains in the marketplace and casual promises in a social setting mark the two extremes, but many hard cases lie between. When gaps are left in a contract, how should courts fill them? What does it mean to say that an agreement is legally enforceable? If someone breaks a legally enforceable contract, what consequences follow? For 150 years, legal scholars have debated whether a set of coherent principles provide answers to such basic questions. Oliver Wendell Holmes put forward the affirmative case, arguing that bargained-for consideration, expectation damages, and a handful of related ideas captured the essence of contract law. The work of the next several generations, culminating in Grant Gilmore's The Death of Contract in 1974, took a contrary view. The coherence Holmes had tried to bring to the field was illusory. It was more sensible to see contracts as merely a species of civil obligation and resist the temptation to impose rigid and artificial rules. In Reconstructing Contracts, Douglas Baird takes stock of the current state of contract doctrine and in the process reinvigorates the classic framework of Anglo-American contract law. He shows that Holmes's principles are fundamentally sound. Even if they lack that talismanic quality formerly ascribed to them, properly understood they continue to provide the best guide to contracts for a new generation of students, practitioners, and judges.

New book purchase includes complimentary digital access to the eBook. This statutory supplement combines the most useful statutes for courses in contracts, commercial law, secured transactions, commercial paper, sales, bankruptcy, debtor-creditor law, and corporate reorganizations and includes new Article 12 of the Uniform Commercial Code and its official comments, as well as the amendments to Article 9 and other parts of the U.C.C.

Regularly cited by the Supreme Court and others, Elements of Bankruptcy provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic principles of bankruptcy law. In addition to covering foundational questions such as the fresh start for individuals, property of the estate, executory contracts, adequate protection, preferences, and fraudulent conveyances, this book also covers cutting-edge issues such as restructuring support agreements, nonconsensual third-party releases, make-whole clauses, carve-outs, trap doors, and backstops. The seventh edition also takes stock of recent developments from the Supreme Court and elsewhere, including such cases as Mission Product Holdings, Jevic, Fulton, and Purdue Pharma.

This easy-to-teach casebook offers a clear explanation of the bankruptcy process. The text challenges the student with commentary and questions that explore both new and classical bankruptcy themes. The book is fully updated and addresses the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, including means testing for consumer debtors, and the recent trend toward creditor control of the Chapter 11 reorganization process.

The law of corporate reorganizations controls the fate of enterprises worth billions of dollars and has reshaped entire sectors of the economy, yet its inner workings largely remain a mystery. Judges must police a small and closed fraternity of professionals as they sit down at a conference table and forge a new future for a distressed business, but little appears to tell judges how they are to do this. Judges, however, are in fact bound by a coherent set of unwritten principles that derive from a statute Parliament passed in 1571. These principles are not simply norms or customary practices. They have hard edges, judges must enforce them, and parties are bound by them as they are by any other law. This book traces the evolution of these unwritten principles and makes accessible a legal world that has long been closed off to outsiders.

The law of corporate reorganizations controls the fate of enterprises worth billions of dollars and has reshaped entire sectors of the economy, yet its inner workings largely remain a mystery. Judges must police a small and closed fraternity of professionals as they sit down at a conference table and forge a new future for a distressed business, but little appears to tell judges how they are to do this. Judges, however, are in fact bound by a coherent set of unwritten principles that derive from a statute Parliament passed in 1571. These principles are not simply norms or customary practices. They have hard edges, judges must enforce them, and parties are bound by them as they are by any other law. This book traces the evolution of these unwritten principles and makes accessible a legal world that has long been closed off to outsiders.

With the appearance of the Eleventh Edition, this book is now well into its sixth decade. Throughout its long history, this casebook has relied on classic cases to capture the fundamental principles of contract law. This new edition preserves and builds upon the book's distinctive character, especially its use of canonical cases and its sensitivity to the history. The newly added cases show how the basic principles of contract law continue to evolve, even in such well-explored areas as promissory estoppel and restitution. As before, this edition eschews any distinctive take on the law of contracts and thus allows each teacher using the book a broad range of choice on what to bring in to channel or expand classroom discussion. The most visible alteration in this edition is a new focus on the bargaining environment in which contracts are formed and how legal rules shape it. A significant amount of new material has been added, but the length of the book remains about the same. CasebookPlus Hardbound - New, hardbound print book includes lifetime digital access to an eBook, with the ability to highlight and take notes, and 12-month access to a digital Learning Library that includes self-assessment quizzes tied to this book, leading study aids, an outline starter, and Gilbert Law Dictionary.

With the appearance of the Eleventh Edition, this book is now well into its sixth decade. Throughout its long history, this casebook has relied on classic cases to capture the fundamental principles of contract law. This new edition preserves and builds upon the book's distinctive character, especially its use of canonical cases and its sensitivity to the history. The newly added cases show how the basic principles of contract law continue to evolve, even in such well-explored areas as promissory estoppel and restitution. As before, this edition eschews any distinctive take on the law of contracts and thus allows each teacher using the book a broad range of choice on what to bring in to channel or expand classroom discussion. The most visible alteration in this edition is a new focus on the bargaining environment in which contracts are formed and how legal rules shape it. A significant amount of new material has been added, but the length of the book remains about the same.