Contract Law

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Comment
Volume 92.5
On FRAND-ly Terms: Examining the Role of Juries in Standard-Essential Patent Disputes
Marta Krason
B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.S., Stanford University; J.D. Candidate 2026, The University of Chicago Law School.

I would like to thank Professor Jonathan Masur and the editors and staff of The University of Chicago Law Review, including Andy Wang, Zoë Ewing, Jonah Klausner, Karan Lala, Eric Haupt, Eugene DeCosse, and Helen Chamberlin, for their thoughtful advice and insights.

Holders of patents covering technology standards, known as standard-essential patents (SEP), control the rights to an invention with no commercially-viable alternative or that cannot be designed around while still complying with a standard. This gives SEP holders significant leverage in licensing negotiations. Standards development organizations (SDOs) play an important role in curbing opportunistic behavior by patent holders. SDOs require SEP holders to license their patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. However, courts have mischaracterized FRAND commitments, concluding that these disputes carry a Seventh Amendment guarantee to a jury trial. This mischaracterization undermines the fair resolution of FRAND disputes, and a different approach is necessary. In this Comment, Marta Krason proposes an alternative analytical framework that more accurately characterizes FRAND disputes by drawing on principles from contract and property law, concluding that the constitutionally proper adjudicator is a judge, not a jury.

Contract Law Contracts Intellectual Property Technology
2
Essay
Pre-closing Liability
Omri Ben-Shahar
Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

I am grateful to Russell Korobkin, Saul Levmore, and Eric Posner for helpful comments.

Consumer Law Contract Law
2
Book review
75.1
Economics as Context for Contract Law
George S. Geis
Associate Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law; Visiting Associate Professor, University of Virginia School of Law, 2007–2008

Thanks to Victor Goldberg, Jody Kraus, Darian Ibrahim, and Eric Posner for helpful comments.

Contract Law Law and Economics
2
Article
78.3
Public Entrenchment through Private Law: Binding Local Governments
Christopher Serkin
Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Thanks to Vicki Been for early conversations about this Article. I received invaluable comments from Greg Alexander, Fred Bloom, John Echeverria, Lee Fennell, Ted Janger, Jim Krier, Rebecca Kysar, Eric Posner, Julie Roin, Stew Sterk, Nelson Tebbe, and participants in faculty workshops at Brooklyn Law School and Cornell Law School, as well as participants at the Tel Aviv Environmental Law and Policy Workshop. Thanks to the Brooklyn Law School Dean’s Summer Research Fund for generously supporting this project. Carrie Darman and Amanda Zink provided research assistance.

Contract Law Property Law Public Choice
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Article
80.1
The Psychology of Contract Precautions
David A. Hoffman
James E. Beasley Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Tess Wilkinson-Ryan
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School

We thank Jane Baron, Craig Green, Zev Eigen, Yuval Feldman, Bob Hillman, Greg Mandel, Rafael Pardo, Alex Radus, Brishen Rogers, David Zaring, and participants at faculty colloquia at Vanderbilt Law School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, William & Mary Law School, as well as at the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies for comments on earlier drafts.

Behavioral Economics Contract Law Empirical Analysis Law and Economics
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Essay
84.1
Concepts before Percepts: The Central Place of Doctrine in Legal Scholarship
Richard A. Epstein
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution; James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer, The University of Chicago Law School

My thanks to Bijan Aboutorabi, The University of Chicago Law School Class of 2018, and Philip Cooper, The University of Chicago Law School Class of 2017, for their valuable research assistance.

I.  Contract Damages

Best Practices Contract Law Jurisdiction Standing

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