Contract Law

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85.6
Relational Contracts of Adhesion
David A. Hoffman
Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School

I would like to thank the individuals who agreed to be interviewed for this article: Hissan Bajwa, Michal Rosenn, Bonnie Broeren, Rob Chesnut, Eric Goldman, Jay Monahan, Ari Shahdadi, Curtis Anderson, Ed Ferguson, Michael Cheah, Hansen Tong, and Miranda Lerner. Katherine Schloss Ackerman (Penn ’17), Elyssa Eisenberg (Penn ’18), and Michelle Kao (Penn ’18) provided research assistance. Tom Baker, Shyam Balganesh, Danielle Citron, Zev Eigen, Meirav Furth-Matzkin, Eric Goldman, Ethan Leib, Sophia Lee, Greg Klass, Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, Melanie McMenamin, Lior Strahilevitz, Rick Swedloff, Michael Risch, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, David Wishnick, and participants at faculty workshops at the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, UC Hastings, Villanova University, University of Chicago, and the Second Empirical Contracts Working Group provided useful feedback.

Consumer contract theory is myopically focused on the unread fine print. Because consumers don’t read their contracts, firms can make “hidden” terms worse without lowering prices.

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Contrived Threats versus Uncontrived Warnings: A General Solution to the Puzzles of Contractual Duress, Unconstitutional Conditions, and Blackmail
Einer Elhauge
Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.

I am grateful for funding from the Petrie-Flom Center and Harvard Law School and for helpful comments from Michael Abramowicz, Jonathan Adler, Albert Alschuler, Scott Altman, Ian Ayres, William Baude, Adam Cox, Elizabeth Emens, Richard Fallon, Joe Farrell, Brian Fitzpatrick, Charles Fried, John Goldberg, Wendy Gordon, Rick Hills, Bert Huang, Daryl Levinson, John Manning, Eric Rasmusen, Chris Robertson, Louis Michael Seidman, Christopher Serkin, Steven Shavell, Suzanna Sherry, Sonja Starr, Matt Stephenson, Cass Sunstein, Mark Tushnet, Adrian Vermeule, Abe Wickelgren, and participants in the Harvard Law Faculty Workshop, the Harvard Law and Economics Workshop, the Vanderbilt Law Faculty Workshop, and the 2014 Yale conference on Medicare and Medicaid.