Visions of Contract Theory

This book reviews and critiques some of the major theories of contract law. The theories of contract law selected for coverage include law and economics, behavioral decision theory, inequality of bargaining power, law as interpretation (idealism), and critical legal theory. Chapters 2 through 4 examine the use of the themes of rationality and efficiency to rationalize contract law. Chapters 5 and 6 analyze the role of bargaining power in contract law. Chapters 7 and 8 analyze the idealism of Karl N. Llewellyn and Ronald Dworkin that advances the proposition that law is able to obtain internal integrity through a process of theory building. Chapter 9 explores the major tenets of Critical Legal Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Feminist Legal Theory. Chapter 9 also acts as a capstone chapter in that it incorporates much of the analysis provided in the earlier chapters. New theoretical insights into more specific areas of interest are provided, such as the problems of rational choice theory, bargaining power, theory of interpretation, and the use of contextualism as a positive methodology of critical legal theory. In the end, the book should be viewed as a series of independent essays under the very broad umbrella of contract theory.

Larry A. DiMatteo is adjunct professor at the University of Florida Law School and associate professor/chair of the Department of Management at the university's College of Business.Robert A. Prentice is the Ed and Molly Smith Centennial Professor in Business Law and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the Red McCombs School of Business of the University of Texas at Austin.Blake D. Morant is the Roy L. Steinheimer, Jr. Professor of Law and Director of the Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington and Lee University School of Law.Daniel D. Barnhizer is an associate professor at Michigan State University College of Law.